


Through His Eye Sockets

by natigail



Series: You Can Determine The Future Of Our World universe [2]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, Other, The main story is written in the reader's point of view but this story shows Sans' POV, This is just a bonus part to the first story in the series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-11
Updated: 2018-06-03
Packaged: 2019-04-16 22:02:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 33,255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14174301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/natigail/pseuds/natigail
Summary: There will always be at least two sides to every story. In reality there are often many more than that. But at the very least, there will be more than one. Everything that one human experienced as monsters kidnapped her, would look very different from her captor’s point of view. They are standing on opposite sides – enemies at war – but somewhere along the way, the lines became blurry and they become allies, friends and even more than that.*Read You Can Determine The Future Of Our World first as it won’t make much sense otherwise. This is a bonus story to show snippets of Sans’ point of view and what was going on inside of his skull during that story.*





	1. Introduction to Sans' point of view

Sans had given up finding someone who would make his soul feel at ease. He had enough with his friends and family and he had convinced himself he didn’t need something like that. A part of him even felt like he didn’t deserve to have someone care for him like that. He didn’t want anyone to have to settle for this wasteful sack of bones.

He had one mission in life; to protect his loved ones.

And he had been failing miserably at that since they had emerged from the Underground. The surface hadn’t been the utopia that they had all been hoping for and instead humanity had meet them with hostility and fear, even when the monsters had tried to explain that they wanted nothing more than peace and to live in harmony.

So many things had gone wrong and Sans felt like he was living his nightmares. If he could just get Frisk back, if they could just reset things, then everything would be okay. He had thought that the Underground had been bad, and it most certainly had, but being up here had challenges that none of them had expected.

And then she came along; a human with the soul that he couldn’t quite read. When he took her, he thought of her as nothing more than a lead, as a means to an end, as a way to get Frisk. He just wanted the information inside of her skull and then he was ready to release her back into the world and forget about her. But… things didn’t quite go like that.

He had underestimated her. When she spared his life of her own volition, he wasn’t quite sure how to react. She had been in a government facility. She was a researcher. She was stubborn and tight-lipped but yet she showed him mercy.

A crazy idea had popped into his head and he had run with it, even as he worried for his brother’s safety. He had taken her into his home and that’s when things had started to shift. Sans hadn’t realized but he had started to resent any human that wasn’t Frisk and seeing this one laugh and smile with his brother and teaching him how to cook, made Sans confront that bias.

She was so full of life and curious. When she got hurt and he healed her with magic, she didn’t seem frightened at all. She seemed fascinated by him and his magic. It made him want to be wary because when Gaster had taken an interest in his magic, it had only brought him pain and suffering. But Sans soon found out that she was nothing like the father figure who had screwed him up.

Sans was furious when Papyrus told her about his missing hand. You didn’t share your weaknesses with outsiders; even if Sans couldn’t deny the blooming friendship between the two. He told her to leave. He was tired of not getting anywhere and worried about the fluttering feeling inside his ribcage. However, she surprised him again when she proved adamant about helping Papyrus. With her help, Sans managed to finally restore his brother’s hand and for that alone he would be her eternally grateful.

When he pulled out her soul and finally got a close look, he almost lost control. It was so beautiful and he felt the warmth spread throughout his own bones. Human souls were so powerful and he had hers like putty in his hand and she had asked him to do it! He managed to restrain himself. Barely.

And then… she stayed. She had almost left but she turned back and ran home and confessed everything she knew. Nothing concealed. It was more than Sans could say for himself. He wasn’t sure when or how he had inspired her to put so much trust in him with this sensitive information. She asked only one thing and at that point Sans would have given her the world.

The whirlwind continued when he allowed himself to be captured to keep the promise he made her. He was okay with sacrificing himself because everyone else would get away. She had changed sides but at POCAM she just had to pretend that she still stood with the humans. It was heartbreaking to watch her crack under the pressure but Sans couldn’t help but admire her integrity. And somehow – against all odds – she got them out of there.

He had been falling apart, deteriorating and he was on the cusp of ceasing to exist when he felt the determination flood his bones. She had steadied him and somehow, with her help, he had managed to find away out of the void that still terrified him.

And she stayed and helped, even as Sans could hear the doubt in her voice about the reset. He tried to ignore it, to push it away, because this was what they had agreed upon. He felt ashamed that he hadn’t listened to her before her outburst. But things were so overwhelming and he didn’t want to identify the feelings taking hold inside of his ribcage. They were going to reset and he was going to lose her, so he couldn’t let his soul get more attached.

But then she ran away and he didn’t know where she went. He thought that maybe he had finally managed to push her away, like he so often did to anyone who got close. But she came home and he did something that he’d never done to anyone else. He showed her his own soul and she had thought that it was beautiful and she wouldn’t let him be self-deprecating about it at all.

He knew losing her would tear him apart but things were already in motion… until they weren’t anymore. Frisk changed their mind and Sans couldn’t thank them enough for that. Because that meant he got a second chance with the human who made his soul feel at ease. She wasn’t going anywhere. She was staying there to fight alongside the monsters.

He had taken her against her will in the beginning and he would forever be ashamed of that. However, he had also tried to protect her and he had set her free, only for her to stick right beside him. He had made it a point to remind her, again and again, that this didn’t need to be her fight. She didn’t need to get more involved than she already was.

But she did. She stayed. She fought with them. She was the key to solving everything. Her words left everlasting impact on anyone who heard them. And most importantly of all, she made him happier than he thought he would ever be. In her, he found the best partner that he could ever have asked for.

She might be human and he might be a monster but they stood equal, side by side. They made each other’s souls feel at ease and that was a rare thing indeed and one Sans never thought that he would get to experience.

He couldn’t be more pleased that she had proved him wrong.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been taking requests on the main story for what elements of the story where readers would like to see Sans' point of view and I'm currently working on them. I might just post it all in one big "chapter" but there's a lot of bits requested to please be patient with me. But I hope you liked this little overall introduction to Sans' point of view. Mostly, the rest (and majority) of this story will be build around the already established dialogue used throughout You Can Determine The Future Of Our World. I'm so sad to see the story go, so I'm looking forward to re-living bits of it through Sans' eye sockets.
> 
> Update: I will probably post the second part early June. Sorry for the delay but I plan on taking a little break from posting to focus on writing some new stuff.


	2. "interesting," he muttered to himself.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This girl was interesting, like he had noted when he first met her. He technically didn't have any skin for her to get under but still he felt like she was somehow attaching herself to his life. At first, he thought it was a horrible thing as he was never allowed to have nice things but she might just show him how wrong he had been.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bits of the different scenes from YCDTFOOW through Sans' eye sockets. I took requests in the comments on the main document and I am so happy to share pivotal scenes with you. Dialogue has obviously remained the same but I hope you enjoy it nonetheless.

Nothing was working with this human. She was stubborn as hell and none of the techniques he had tried so far had even nudged her resolve. He couldn’t get a proper read on her soul but he wondered if it was one with determination behind whatever was clouding his judgment of it.

She was the first solid lead they had to finding Frisk since the teenager had been taken. Sans needed to get them back. It wasn’t even about the possibility of resetting to before the war, it was because they were family and anyone who got in between him and family were bound to have a bad time.

He was contemplating whether he should show this human a proper bad time but it didn’t sit right with him. He didn’t want to confirm her clear prejudices that monsters were heartless beings who always resorted to violence.

So he might have gone to Grillby’s and downed a couple of bottles of hot sauce and mixed them with vodka. Yeah, it wasn’t his finest moment. Normally, he never touched the stuff but he was tired.

He was also driving himself senseless with worry about Frisk. Sure, he knew that the kid was stronger than most and they would probably be fine but Sans had wanted to be there for them. He had promised to look after them, just like he had promised to look after Papyrus.

It was his job to protect them and he was failing.

He needed that damn human to just give up the information. Why was she so stubbornly holding onto it anyway? She was just a stepping stone to getting nearer Frisk and he would be willing to just let her walk out of here if she gave them a lead.

Downing the rest of his bottle of spirited hot sauce, Sans got up from his seat and just a shortcut to the door outside of the room where they had been holding the human. It had been a hotel before the monsters took over the city that they had called New New Home but right now it worked more like a prison.

That notion made Sans’ non-existent guts twist as he opened the door and walked in. He was more off balance than he had firstly realized and it took him a moment to correct his posture.

“there’s you are…” he said and his words came out much more slurred than he had thought that they would. Was he really that affected by the human alcohol? “ready to answer my questions this time?”

“Why were you drinking?” the human asked, eyes wide with curiosity.

There was something about the way that her eyes lit up that intrigued him. But he should not let himself get intrigued by her. That wouldn’t lead to anywhere productive, so instead he deflected with a joke.

“none of your bonesss, punk.”

He still felt a little unsteady on his feet, so he leaned against the wall. Why wouldn’t she stop looking at him like that? Sans called upon his magic to shove the human slightly but his soul wasn’t in the intimidation action.

Sans just waited as the human stayed silent. He was used to it by now. In the beginning, he’d tried to break down her defenses with puns in an attempt to humanize himself but so far nothing had stuck.

So now he just watched her and wondered what was going on behind those intelligent eyes of hers. He wondered if things might have been different if he had come across her in a timeline where there had been no war. Would she have been a friend instead of a means to an end?

He had not expected the human to come charging at him or to find a knife pressed to his spine before he could cast her aside with his magic. His entire body froze as he realized how fucking stupid he had been.

He could feel the blade digging into his vital bones and if she managed to severe his vertebrae he almost certainly would turn to dust. He had been distracted and drunk and if he forced her away now, the blade might still nick him enough to do fatal damage.

If he died, would they be able to find Frisk? Would Papyrus ever get over losing his older brother? Would they be able to reset time without his help?

Too many people depended on him to get himself into a situation like this but nevertheless here he was and there wasn’t much he could do about it. He felt significantly more sober though.

Also, despite being in the ultimate position of power, the human girl in front of him looked unsure. So Sans decided to be honest and hope that she might understand and she wasn’t as brainwashed as so many of her kind seemed to be.

He didn’t like begging one bit but he knew when he was a beaten.

“please…”

Her eyes widened in surprise.

“I… I d-don’t…” she stuttered. “Why aren’t you fighting back?”

With those words the blade dug in just a little bit deeper.

“don’t! any closer and you’ll dust me,” he confessed. He should not be telling this to an enemy human but he didn’t feel like he had much choice in the matter.

“Is it because you’ve been drinking? Is that why you aren’t doing anything? Has it inhabited your powers?”

A chuckle escaped him. To think that something like alcohol would be able to affect his massive expanses of magic was a silly notion but he took comfort in the neutral tone of his attacker.

“no… it makes me slower, not unable. but…”

He hesitated. He didn’t want to confess everything to her. That was one of the useful things Gaster had thought him. Never tell people more than they need to know. Knowledge is power and you should not just hand it out for free.

“Please go on and tell me why I shouldn’t press this blade in as deep as it’ll go. Who knows it might even decapitate you…” the human said but her voice wavered slightly.

“i… do you know about HP?” he asked and ignored the old advice of his father figure for once.

“Yes, health points or hit points, it depends. It represents how much damage you can endure before dying. It varies from monster to monster but powerful monster such as you usually have a higher count that regular monsters.”

“you know a bit, huh?” Sans asked and raised his brow bone. He had not expected her to know that much about monster functions, even if they had found her in one of those research facilities. Wasn’t she only an intern? That’s what her badge has said anyway.

“Stop stalling, bone boy. You know the place you kidnapped me from. You seem intelligent enough to recognize it for what it was. Now tell me what is your point with this HP talk?”

“sorry, kid. it’s just a bit personal to say… but considering you’ve got me pinned down, i guess i don’t have a choice. i only have one HP.”

It burned to say that out loud, especially because no one actually knew that. Sans had done a very good job of keeping it hidden from Papyrus and all of his friends. He did not want them to worry about him or ask questions of how his HP had lowered to just one. He hated thinking about what all those trips to the void had done to him and he didn’t want anyone’s sympathies. Frisk might have known about his HP levels in a different timeline but Sans was fairly certain that they didn’t know at present time. Yet here he was telling this new human. It was highly dangerous.

But Sans could feel that it was the right call when her grip on the knife faltered ever so slightly. He could probably shove her aside now without causing further damaged but he watched instead, wanting to see how this would play out.

It was pretty evident that she was struggling with how to proceed.

Sans had forgotten how normal humans acted. He had only really spent any significant time with monsters and then Frisk and that kid was their own ballpark of special.

So Sans took this as a learning opportunity and watched as seemingly conflicting notions passed in the brain of this curious human.

“Is that why you’re not… I don’t know, flinging me across the room or something?”

She sounded slightly frightened of him and he felt his skull soften a little at her tone. Sure, he wanted humans to respect and be wary of him but down-right afraid? He wanted to live in harmony with them and he only used his powers when the situation called for it.

“you were quicker than i realized. doing so now might accidentally cut me. so… we stand in a predicament, kid. dust me or let me go? we both know i won’t let you out of here, even with that knife against my vertebrae.”

He didn’t want to tell her that he could probably move her away without damage with how much she had let the pressure on the knife drop. He could see that she was thinking and he was fascinated.

“You’ll kill me if I do that… or worse.”

That was not what he had been expecting.

“what would be worse than death?” he asked. He could think of a whole bunch of things himself but he doubted that the human in front of him would suffer from similar traumas - at least he hoped not.

“Losing sight of who you are.”

Her words washed over him unpleasantly. Yeah, that was certainly worse than death but he wasn’t sure how a human could share the sentiment he had after having watched a dear friend turn into a murdering monster. Death was a kind mercy in those hell timelines, even if he never liked having to kill anyone.

“What are your plans with me?” she asked.

“plans? i’ve been telling you all along. we took you so you can tell us where frisk is. we need to get our kid back,” Sans said truthfully.

He wanted to keep an honest and open tone with her. He’d tried to get her to talk for weeks without any luck at all but right now she was finally talking to him. If he knew that all that would have been needed was for her to have the upper hand, he might have constructed such a scenario earlier.

But there was also the trouble with speaking to her now because with each moment that passed he found some sort of respect growing for her.

“Your kid?” she snorted.

Sans bristled a bit at that.

“we’re the only family they’ve got. what did they say to you?”

Keep talking. Please, keep talking. We need to find Frisk. Sans knew Frisk was a good judge of character and if they had truly said something to this human, it was because they had made a decent first impression.

“They… I don’t know. They advocated on your behalf, I think. But they could just be a traumatized teenager. They’ve been through so much. They might not know and I was told that Frisk had been rescued from…”

“let me guess?” Sans knew where this one was going. “from the big, bad monsters?”

He knew that emotion must have drained from his skull but he was so tired of the humans always painting them to be the bad guys, when it has been the human who had planted the bomb that started the war and it had been the humans who insisted in keeping it going instead of trying to make peace.

“Yes, Sans. That’s what we were told. It’s not a big stretch to believe that Frisk has some type Stockholm Syndrome, is it? That’s when a captive becomes attached to their captor.”

It was almost funny that she thought that Frisk could be swayed by anyone. That kid only ever did what they wanted to. No one could make them do anything.

“frisk is fully capable of making their own decisions. no one could force them to do anything. if anything, frisk was the one leading the path to the surface. they wanted to unite their two worlds.”

Again, Sans was surprised that his words seemed to be considered with serious thought. This human wasn’t mindlessly ignoring what he was saying because of her prejudice. She was actually listening and trying to make up her own mind. It was an admirable quality and Sans suddenly felt a little bad that she’s been locked inside of this hotel room for two weeks.

“What was your plan with me afterwards if I gave you the information you wanted?”

Sans couldn’t help himself. He let his pupils disappear and he put back on his scary mask. He could feel that he was turning soft and this was no world to be soft, especially not when someone still held a blade to his spine.

“why don’t you tell me and find out, pal?”

“What will you do if I let go?”

Was she serious? She would just let him go?

“you… want to let me go? well, that would be knife of you,” Sans said and threw in the pun, like he usually did when he was in dire situations. It was his way of trying to deflect the tension.

“A pun? Really, Sans?” the human said and there was that edge of aspiration in her voice. She sounded almost like when Papyrus complained about his puns and the comparison did something to his soul.

And then she was suddenly pulling back and creating distance between the two of them. She still held the knife in her hand but it was clear from her body language that she was done fighting. She didn’t want to fight him.

She was a true pacifist.

Fuck, he had been too cruel to her by keeping her locked up here. She was clearly a human of sound mind. She could probably be reasoned with. He just needed to show her what monsters were really like.

“i’ll be taking that…” Sans said and called the knife to him.

“What will you do to me?” she asked.

Sans didn’t want to answer but he was considering the same thing. Would it be a very stupid idea to invite her to stay with him and Papyrus? Would she ever consider pulling this kind of stunt with his baby brother? If she did, he would show no mercy but if he was right about her character then Pap would be perfectly safe.

“why did you not go through with it? did you lack the backbone?”

“I’ve never… you know,” she said and waved her hands around.

Never what? Dusted a monster? He had almost assumed that would have been mandatory to work for the human government but even if he could not tell her soul color properly, he could tell that she was not lying.

“you’re telling the truth.”

“Well… I thought it would be easier. Monsters are… supposed to be these evil creatures with horns and fangs and glowing eyes. While the latter part is true… monsterkind seem only as evil as humankind and we don’t like to think of ourselves as evil. Flawed, yes and some people are evil but as a whole we deem ourselves as the good guys.”

Sans caught onto the important words in those sentences. Supposed to. Seem. No certainty in her words anymore. She was questioning what she had thought to be certain before.

“You don’t even have one HP, do you?” she asked and almost curled together on the bed.

It would be so easy to lie. She obviously thought that Sans might just have been manipulating and playing her all of this time but if he wanted her to open up, then he couldn’t start by lying.

“i do… i wasn’t lying. you’d have dusted me if you’d cut any deeper. you got the drop on me. i’m impressed. not many have done that…”

“And let me guess, the ones who have haven’t lived to tell the tale about it?” she snarled, and Sans could hear the fear in the undertones.

“i won’t kill you, pal,” he said truthfully. He had never wanted to kill her. He had just wanted the information and not really thought much about what she thought of him based on his methods. But he felt how that was changing.

“Why?”

“’cause i want you on our side. frisk must have liked you if they spoke about us. frisk is a great judge of character… most of the time. we only want them back.”

“I can’t help you, Sans. I can’t give up locations where humans are hiding to a monster like you. I just… I almost wish… but no. I just can’t. I’m sorry about Frisk. They seemed to genuinely care for their monster family. Kept asking for a Toriel, which is the queen of monsters, isn’t she?”

He nodded and continued to listen. He hadn’t thought about how she might see it. Bringing the humans in danger because of revealing locations? Perhaps to some degree but it wasn’t like they were going to storm in there and kill everyone on sight. Was that really what humans thought of them?

“I only spoke with them from a short time and I don’t understand sign language that well. They moved on before you attacked the facility. I’d only been working there for a month. I was just working late the night that they brought Frisk in. It was a mistake I was even there.”

So she had Frisk’s stamp of approval if they had spoken so much to her. That was reassuring. So it might not be such a crazy idea to invite her to stay with him and his brother.

“could you ever hurt a monster?”

He needed to know that before he let her anywhere close to Papyrus.

“I don’t know. I thought I could but clearly this kafuffle with you showed that I wasn’t right. Why do you ask that of all questions?”

“’cause i want to invite you into my home to stay but not if you pose any danger to my brother. if you so much as lay a finger on him, even a stunt like before, you’re not only dead but viciously so.”

His voice turned threatening naturally when he talked about his little brother but he regretted it a bit when he saw the flash of fear in your eyes.

“Why would you do that?” she asked.

“you only know one side of the story and it’s ‘bout time you see the other side. then maybe you’ll understand why frisk is so important to us.”

☆☆☆

Sans wasn’t sure if bringing her into his home had been the right choice. He was terrified of letting any human near Papyrus, even if he knew that his brother would love to have a houseguest.

The idea had come to him all too quickly because the human clearly didn’t fare well being locked up in that old hotel room. And Sans still wasn’t sure what he had felt when she had taken a step back without inflicting any harm on him, even if she had plenty reason to want him dusted.

And he had been so focused on getting the information that could potentially lead them to Frisk that he had actually forgotten how objectively scary this was for her. When she had insinuated that he might have move her here, to force her to…

His mind couldn’t even go down that path. He would never do that. Not to anybody, let alone a poor human girl caught up in all of this against her wishes.

He was lying awake in his bed thinking about all of this. He couldn’t let himself fall asleep but he didn’t much want to either. The nightmares would come and he had no interest in having them while they had a new houseguest.

Just a couple of days, he told himself. He would let Papyrus show her just how friendly and harmless monsters were and she would see reason. She was a true pacifist, right? It certainly seemed like that.

But she was also a stubborn human. Sans had heard her tossing and turning and he didn’t envy the unrest she undoubtedly felt. He really hoped that she wasn’t having nightmares. He listened all throughout the night and eventually, he heard the sound of her feet hitting the floor. Anyone who hadn’t been awake and listening for it wouldn’t have been able to catch it.

Part of Sans wanted to let her go because this whole thing wasn’t fair on her. But if she attempted to climb over the wall, the guards would get her and probably throw her back with all the other people that had surrendered. That way she would also be able to learn about the monster history but Sans needed her to tell him what she knew first.

Her. Doe.

It was an adorable nickname.

Sans could figure out her name if he wanted. He could just ask Alphys to hack the employee register of that research facility but for some reason that felt like invading her privacy. He had already removed her from her life. He didn’t want to do more harm.

But he still couldn’t let her leave, so he sighed before he made a shortcut into the living room as her hand touched the doorknob.

“what did i tell you?<” Sans asked her.

She was frozen in place and she looked terrified of him and Sans felt so fucking bad. He never wanted to instill that kind of fear in anyone. He might be powerful but he wasn’t cruel, despite what the human media had been saying about his kind.

“I was trying to leave,” she said and turned around to face him. “How did you know?”

“i listened for you,” he answered with a shrug and tried to make himself look as little intimidating as possible.

“I couldn’t sleep,” she stated. “And it seems like you couldn’t either.”

Her observation took him by surprise. Normally, people couldn’t tell that he hardly slept. Most monsters thought the opposite because they saw all his little micro naps everywhere but that was because it was the only way he could ensure that he didn’t get full on nightmares. He shrugged and hoped it looked casual.

“don’t sleep much,” he replied.

She still looked ready to fight or take flight. There was something alluring about her standing like that and trying to stare him down. He knew that look in her eyes. She wasn’t falling back asleep before she cleared her head of whatever bothered her.

“come, let me show you something,” he said.

The moment he neared her, she stumbled back. She was terrified of just standing close to him. He felt like such a dick for scaring her. He held open the door and gave her plenty of space to pass through without coming near him.

A little stargazing might help. Humans did that as well, right? Sans had always loved the nights’ sky, ever since they escaped the Underground. The glowing stones in the celling of the caves had nothing on the real thing.

He didn’t attempt to coach her and simply walked around to the back garden and the little hilltop where he’d usually sit and admire the stars. She followed and sat down next to him, even if she looked a little unsure.

She also looked very cold with how she clutched her body with her arms. Oh, she should probably have put on some more clothes first before going out into the cold night air. Sans loved the protective padding of his hoodie but he pulled it off his shoulders and offered it to her anyway. He didn't technically need it to stay warm but he just liked how it his his boney frame.

“i always forget how sensitive you are to temperature,” Sans said and tried not to let her look of utter surprise unsettle him.

“Thanks, Sans,” she said and pulled on his hoodie.

In retrospect, it was probably a mistake. His hoodie would start to smell like her now. He couldn’t let himself get attached to this human. Doe. She was just here temporary and soon enough she would be out of his life again.

He felt her gaze on him and he tried not to feel vulnerable, so he lied back down and closed his eye sockets. However, he could still feel her eyes on his body. He kept trying to ignore it.

But he could only resist for so long.

“why are you staring like that? want to jump my bones?” he asked teasingly and opened his eyes to see her looking away hastily. Wait… was she even blushing? Now Sans wanted to stare at her.

“No, I just find monsters interesting. You’re so different from us and sometimes it’s difficult to distinguish between what’s truth and what’s propaganda. Humans think we know a lot about monsters but I don’t think that true anymore.”

She was being honest with him. She had spared his life. He might bet that her soul color was green for kindness, even if he couldn’t get a proper read on it.

“i’m sorry,” he blurted out.

“What?”

“i never did apologize for all of this. i know you want to go home, pal. and I see the stubbornness but i also see a kind and honorable heart. you’re the only real lead we’ve had on frisk in a month. we just want them back.”

He wanted her to understand. He hated having put her in this position but without her help, they would be back with no leads and who knew how long Frisk would hold out or what those government humans might do to them?

“I can’t say that it’s okay but I suppose I do appreciate the sentiment. However, I must iterate I won’t tell you anything I know about human bases of operation. Even if I had information like that, I wouldn’t give it up to the monsters we’re at war against. I can’t put innocent lives at risk like that.”

She was trying to look after her own. Sans respected that and he understood the sentiment. But she was talking humans in general and he was looking for his family. Besides, they didn’t want to hurt anyone that they didn’t have to.

“we’re only at war because you humans insist on it. we didn’t want war. we just wanted justice for the attack that killed our king and wounded many of our best fighters,” Sans said.

She frowned, seemingly in deep thought, but she kept her lips tightly pressed together. After a while, her eyes drifted upwards and she started muttering something under her breath. Humans had named all the clusters of stars in their sky, hadn’t they?

Sans tried to proceed with more honesty. He couldn’t count on his awesome brother to make Doe open up and understand that monsters were more than she had been told for the last four years. He would need to open up too, just a little at least. It was a terrifying prospect for him.

“y’know, one thing that the underground really missed was a view like this. humans take the night sky for granted every single night but every single day at least a couple of monsters here come out just to look up at it. to remind ourselves that we got up here in the end. things were supposed to be better up here.”

“I’m sad that it turned out like this,” Doe said. “Monster and humans reuniting should have gone better than this.”

“maybe we’ll get to redo it,” he said because they would have to. It was the only option to bring back the ones they had lost in the war.

They would go back and fix things to it didn’t result in a war. That was the plan. It had been the plan for four years. Only Frisk had been too grief-stricken while Toriel was in a coma and by the time she finally came out of it, Frisk was kidnapped.

Sans wasn’t sure what he had said or why Doe decided to start explaining the constellations but he was thankful for the distraction and the new knowledge. He listened carefully and snuck shy glances at her.

She really was a rather pretty human.

He made a pun and she smiled for a beat before continuing to explain that stars that Sans loved but knew so little of. She started yawning excessively and she really needed to get back in the warmth and sleep.

Sans got to his feet and held out a hand to help her up but she wouldn’t take it and got up herself. He was surprised that he felt a little hurt but then he remembered that his hands were probably just destructive forces to her. She stumbled and Sans almost reached out to steady her but if she wanted to walk herself, then he would let her.

He held open the door for her and she headed straight for the sofa and pulled the blanket over her. She was still in his hoodie. Part of him wanted to ask her to give it back but he couldn’t make himself.

What an odd human she was, this Doe. She was terrified of him and yet she allowed herself to fall asleep in front of him so easily now. He could kill her or even just call out her soul and make her tell him where Frisk was.

She didn’t have any defenses against him like this. She was completely vulnerable.

But Sans wasn’t going to take advantage of this. It wouldn’t be right and he didn’t want her to think that he was like all the terrible monster stories she had heard during the war.

“you are going to make me work hard for this, aren’t you?” he asked softly to the room and the sleeping human before making a shortcut to his own bedroom.

☆☆☆

This was all his fault. It had been an accident but she had been hurt by Undyne’s throwing spear and for a moment Sans had even worried that her soul would shatter. Luckily, it didn't seemed like it was a deadly wound – humans were quite durable when it came down to it – but Sans still felt the guilt deeply within his bones.

Doe had stepped into the situation to protect someone. She was just trying to help and diffuse a tense situation. She was only getting hurt because he was still keeping her here against her will.

As the days had dragged on, the more horrible he had felt about it but he still needed her to tell him about Frisk’s whereabouts. However, now getting her healed up was the primary objective and Papyrus fussing about wasn’t helping the situation along at all. So Sans sent him off to get a piece of pie from Toriel, which would be helpful to the healing process as well.

“Did you seriously just send Papyrus out for pie or did my mind make that up?” she asked, confusion in her voice.

“i did. but it’s for a reason, trust me. how are you feeling?” he confirmed and stepped slightly closer to have a better look.

He had already manipulated a bandage around her arm to put pressure on the wound and she looked down at it and frowned. She looked unsettled.

“i didn't touch you,” Sans rushed to say. “i just stopped the bleeding by err, moving the bandage to you.”

She didn’t look frightened like he thought that she might. Humans were mostly afraid of magic, especially powerful magic like his. He knew that Doe hadn’t liked when he’d used his magic to keep her in place, so he was surprised that she didn’t seem too bothered right now.

“It needs to be cleaned and stitched up. I don't know about monsters but we humans can get infections and our flesh heals very slowly.”

Sans knew at least that. Humans did heal incredibly slowly compared to monsters but monster food would speed the process along quite a bit. And so would the use of magic to close up the wound but Sans had no hopes that she would allow him to use magic directly on her. He could just do it regardless of her permission, like he might have done if Papyrus got hurt, but he knew that wasn’t the best way to gain her trust.

“the pie will help you heal,” Sans explained.

“Okay... I’m not in a state of mind to ask how but I’d definitely like to know later. Do you have a first aid kit anywhere in this house? It will probably be in a white or red box and full with medical supplies. Or do you have some strong alcohol? It’s not ideal as a disinfectant but it’ll be good enough.”

Sans had not been expecting her to be so levelheaded about the whole thing despite the grimace of pain on her face. He also hadn’t expected her to want to learn something as trivial as their food habits. Could that perhaps be used against them?

“we don’t have any of that,” Sans answered to her questions and he gathered courage to offer up the alternative that he was sure that she would reject. “but i can probably clean and close it with green magic, if you’ll let me. it’s not my specialty but i learned it to help heal pap whenever he got into trouble.”

Against all odds, she nodded. Doe was nodding and agreeing to have magic used on her. That was an unusual development.

“you’re certain?” Sans asked as he sat down next to Doe as he started bringing his magic to the surface. It had been a while since he’d practiced green magic but the wound wasn’t too bad, since Undyne hadn’t flung it with murderous intentions and rather she had launched it just to break up the situation.

Sans moved down to rest on his kneecaps by the sofa as he took her arm and started to unwrap the bandage. Normally, he would have done that with his magic but he would rather have it focus on the upcoming healing task, so instead he did it manually. He made sure not to touch his fingertips to her skin because he knew she would probably not want that.

He held his palm over the wound and watched as the red and dried blood turned green, growing more brightly with each moment that passed. Sans focused all of his energy into wrapping it up as quickly as possible.

He felt slightly exhausted when he sat back and looked up at her. She looked fascinated and Sans could recognize that kind of look anywhere. She was a curious human and she was absorbing information around her like a sponge.

It was a dangerous thing because she was working for the other side. When she left New New Home, she could go running back with so many secrets that Sans and Papyrus had probably told her by accident.

“Thank you, Sans.”

The words resonated within his ribcage. He hadn’t expected her to thank him at all. It was his fault that she had gotten into the situation in the first place.

“no problem, doe.”

Sans got off the floor and sat down on the sofa next to Doe and inspected the new scar.

“you might want to hold still,” he advised when she tried to flex her fingers and winced in pain. He slumped back on the sofa and exhaled. It had been too long since he’d used that type of magic. Blue magic was almost a part of his being at this point but other types of magic still required effort.

“Are you hurt now? Because you used Green Magic?”

Sans shook his head and looked over at Doe again. She looked so interested and he couldn’t help but give her a genuine answer.

“blue magic is my thing. green… is difficult. it responds best to kindness and it’s not my forte,” he replied.

He wanted to ask if it was hers because she seemed like someone who might be dominated by kindness but he still couldn’t get a real read on her soul.

“What is Blue associated with then?”

Sans shouldn’t be answering her questions. He was giving up information that the humans didn’t have and it could come back to bite him in the tailbone when she left and ran back to the human government plotting to kill all monsters.

“integrity,” he answered anyway.

“Manipulating objects, actual psychokinesis is related to integrity? How?”

Once again, she proved that she was observant. Sans had already said too much so he simply shrugged and closed his eyes.

Papyrus returned – making a ruckus as usual – but Sans could smell the piece of pie the moment his younger brother was through the door, so he was happy.

“DOE, I BRING YOU TORIEL’S FAMOUS BUTTER SCOTCH PIE!” Papyrus announced. “SANS? WHY ARE YOU SLEEPING WHEN THE HUMAN NEED OUR HELP?”

Sans kept his eye sockets shut and ignored his brother. He was tired and if Doe kept asking questions, he would keep giving answers and that wasn’t a good idea. It was supposed to be the other way around.

She was here to answer his questions but she was stubborn and she wouldn’t do it. Sans could make her. It would be so easy. He would just have to engage her in battle, call out her soul and then she’d spill all of her secrets.

But he could never do that. It was the utmost level of violation, if he did that. He’d never forgive himself if he resorted to soul manipulation, even if it could lead to getting Frisk back. They had to do this the right way.

“I WILL GET YOU A FORK.”

“Do I have to eat it?” Doe asked in a whisper and Sans fought to pretend to still be sleeping. She sounded so young and adorable.

“YES. IT IS MONSTER FOOD AND IT WILL RESTORE YOUR HEALTH. PLEASE EAT ALL OF IT. YOU ARE LUCKY. THAT WAS THE LAST PIECE SHE HAD LEFT.”

Sleepiness came over Sans as he was sat there pretending to nap. The use of green magic had tired him out, so he embraced the nap. Doe wouldn’t hurt Papyrus. He had watched her closely enough to tell that she wouldn’t be able to do his dear younger brother anything.

It was safe to get a quick nap to restore his strength. It would only be a short one, because Sans only ever had short naps where he didn’t allow himself to fall fully asleep or he would be exposed to the nightmares.

He knew it couldn’t have been more than ten minutes when he startled awake but it might as well have been a lifetime. He had made a mistake. Because Papyrus was in the process of showing Doe something that she should absolutely _not_ know. But it was too late for him to interfere because Papyrus had already screwed off the prosthetic glove and he was showing Doe his biggest weakness.

“EH… I ONLY HAVE ONE HAND,” Papyrus said.

Sans felt a whole new wave of guilt wash over him. That was his fault too. He should have protected his brother or he should never have let him into that meeting room. He should have grabbed both Frisk and Papyrus and pulled them both through the void, no matter how difficult it would have been to drag two individuals along.

He shouldn’t have counted on the fact that Frisk would be able to reset but he’d only had a split second to take action when the bomb had started to go off. He’d failed his brother.

Doe and Papyrus was not focused on the sofa or him at all, and instead Doe leaned in and wrapped her arms around Papyrus. Something inside of Sans’ ribcage reacted at the sight.

It was a terrifying feeling.

“Humans?” she asked carefully.

“the bomb.”

Doe flinched when she heard his voice. He could see how color drained from her face and he wanted so desperately for her not to be afraid of him because he really wouldn’t hurt her but right now it made things easier. He could scare her into not telling anyone.

But she needed to go. He couldn’t keep her around her anymore. It was too close to home and his family.

“SANS, YOU ARE FINALLY AWAKE. HOW RUDE TO LAZY AROUND WHEN OUR GUEST WAS RECOVERING! ALSO… IT’S OKAY. I KNOW YOU TOLD ME NOT TO TELL ANYONE BUT SHE IS A FRIEND AND I…”

“okay,” Sans said. He didn’t want to discuss this. Not in front of Doe.

“SANS, IT’S REALLY…<”

“papyrus. go stay with undyne tonight,” Sans ordered.

He needed his brother out of here. He could not stay here. He needed to be somewhere safe and not confessing vital information like this to someone who they couldn’t trust.

“BUT BROTHER I AM COOKING THAT NEW PASTA RECIPE WE FOUND TONIGHT AND…”

“just… for me, okay, pap? just go,” Sans practically begged.

Papyrus looked concerned but Sans knew that his tone would be enough to get his brother to obey.

“FINE! BUT I AM OKAY, SANS. I WANTED HER TO KNOW. SHE IS A _FRIEND_ ,” Papyrus said and made sure to lock eyes with Sans.

This was all a mess. One gigantic mess. None of this should ever have happened. If just he hadn’t taken a nap, if just he hadn’t used energy to heal Doe’s arm, if only Undyne hadn’t hit her, if only Sans hadn’t agreed to show her town.

“you’re not trapped. you can move,” he stated when she still stood frozen in the spot even after Papyrus walked out.

“Are you mad because Papyrus showed me his lack of hand? Sans, you must realize that I don’t care…” she started saying but Sans couldn’t even let her finish with the rage building up inside of him.

“don’t think i don’t know what you’ve been doing all this time. gathering data. cataloging in your head. i see your observant eye. pap shouldn’t reveal his weakness to other monsters or humans, especially not ones like you,” Sans said accusatory.

“I would never do that to him,” she claimed and it sounded sincere but it took a whole lot more for Sans to be able to trust someone. “I know I’m just a human and that we’re at war but don’t you know me better than that by now? You think I’d actually do anything to hurt the adorable and innocent younger brother of yours? I would never betray his trust like that!”

How could he know that? Sans sprung up from the sofa and marched up to her. She stumbled back and away from him and Sans fought down the urge to pin her in place and intimidate her. This wasn’t her fault. She had just gotten caught up in all of this by a coincidence.

“what have you done to make me believe that i can trust you?”

“I guess you can’t then. What are you going to do? Go to your last extreme measure, huh? You’re going to torture me until I have no choice but to reveal what I may or may not know about Frisk’s whereabouts? Or are you going to hand that honor off to Undyne? She’s certainly seem happy to inflict pain!” Doe said, her voice growing increasingly louder.

She was terrified and she kept backing away until her back his the wall and she couldn’t get further back from him. Sans stopped a fair bit away from her.

He was still torn whether to scare her, try to reason with her or just simply give up and sent her out of New New Home. He wasn’t sure if he could ever do anything to make her tell him what she might know about Frisk.

When it came down to it, there was only one real choice. He couldn’t let her stay around here for any longer. He couldn’t bear to be her captor, no matter the circumstances.

“it was a mistake bringing you here. i’m taking you out of here tomorrow. eat, sleep, whatever. leave if you want your chances with the wall. i won’t stop you. by tomorrow, i’ll make sure that you’re out of our lives.”

He made a shortcut promptly after the statement, so he didn’t get to see her reaction at all. He didn’t think that he could bear to see it. It had been a mistake and this was all his fault.

☆☆☆

Sans couldn’t figure her out. She had been furious about being kept against her will, which Sans could understand and he felt so guilty for it, but now that he actually had told her that she was free to leave, she didn’t want to.

It made absolutely no sense to him. He knew that humans could be contradictory but this was a bit much. When he’d come down to find her with a plan she had clearly worked on all night, he had felt much more touched than he had any right to be.

She cared about Papyrus. He didn’t blame her because his brother was extremely lovable but she hadn’t liked monsters when she came here just a few weeks ago and now she was willing to break into her former place of employment, retrieve a book that might just be able to help Papyrus get his hand back, or at least almost as good as.

During the retrieval mission, he had kept waiting for her to turn around and run away but she had stuck by him. Even as though it had hurt to hear her ask for him not to kill that human who almost caught them. Did she really think so lowly of him?

Sans had tried to play it off cool but he was tired and he thought that explaining wouldn’t help but it had. Against all odds, she did listen and even more incredible, she seemed to understand.

And now she was working tirelessly to figure out the exact measurements they would need to restore Papyrus’ hand with magic. Sans hadn’t known she would be so knowledgeable and he was a little in awe of how smart she was. But more so, he felt captivated by how she threw her heart into the work.

“That’s it. My brain can’t do any better than that at the moment. But I’m too wired to sleep,” she said and got up to stretch. Sans couldn’t help himself from sneaking a glance at her as she stood with her eyes shut and her body stretched out. He knew he shouldn’t be looking at her like that. It was extremely impractical if he started to feel too attached to her because she would still leave after Pap’s hand was fixed.

“would star gazing help?” he asked and tried to keep his voice nonchalant as he leaned back against the kitchen counter and tried to remain relaxed as well.

“It might actually. You don’t mind?”

“i meant what i said earlier. you’re free to go. anytime. i won’t keep you against your will,” Sans said because it was very important to him that she knew it. Though he winced internally when he felt compelled to add, “… anymore.”

He watched a little on edge to gauge her reaction but she just huffed out a bit of laughter and smiled down at the ground. Sans’ magic flared up on its own accord and the door swung open but thankfully, she seemed to think it had been intentional.

She walked out into the back garden like she had done it a million times and she automatically came to a stop on the little hill top and laid down. Sans was wondering if she had meant for him to join her but as long as she didn’t do anything to indicate that she wanted to be alone, he would follow along.

The quiet was nice but Sans wanted to hear her voice again, so he pointed up towards the sky and asked about one of the constellations that she had taught him about last time. He could feel her eyes on him and rather than answering his question, her eyes stayed fixed on his arm.

“Can I see that?” she asked and the words came tumbling out of her mouth in a very adorable fashion.

He knew monsters fascinated her. It had be evident before but it still left Sans with a little uneasy feeling in his non-existent stomach. She was a human researcher, even if she was still a student, and despite her help so far, it still felt a little dangerous to let down his guard this much. But if he trusted her near his brother’s bones, then he should trust her near his own.

“it’s just bones,” he said and lifted his arm for her to see it.

Surprisingly, she sat up and moved closer to him. Sans stayed frozen with his arm extended and he felt like he couldn’t breathe with the way her shimmering, albeit tired eyes studied him.

“It’s bones held together by magic, Sans. I told you I’ve always found monsters fascinating. And I’m about to attempt to make a replica of Papyrus’ hand, so it wouldn’t hurt to study one up close,” she argued.

“i’m sure pap wouldn’t mind,” Sans said to deflect, more out of habit than anything else. He was used to deflecting and not letting people get too close to him.

“I’m asking you, Sans,” she said and looked right at him with such an earnest glance in her eyes that he couldn’t help but comply. He anxiously let out a huff and tried to mask it as annoyance, as he moved his hand closer.

“I can’t hurt you, right?” she asked, her voice so vulnerable as he felt warmth spread through his hand as she cradled it in her own.

“nah, i’m not that fragile. it takes some force to fracture these bones. i crack jokes, not bones, daily,” Sans joked, trying so desperately to keep up the façade that she seemed to intent on sending crumbling down.

She let out a snort and it hit him just how comfortable she had gotten around him. It was incredibly that she now requested to touch him when she had been terrified what he might do to her not that long ago. He wondered if he would ever forgive himself for making her fear him. He couldn’t bear to look at her, bathed in the beautiful moonlight, so he closed his eye sockets. Her touch was feathery light and soothing until she accidentally tickled him and he almost jerked his hand out of her grip.

“ticklish,” he explained and he looked right at her and he didn’t try to mask how his grin became wider. She apologized instantly but Sans told her not to worry about it.

She kept tracing her fingers down different parts of his hand for a long time. Eventually she stopped, though she still kept hold of his hand and settled it into her lap with her own two hands.

Doe was certainly something special and Sans was just starting to grasp just how special she might become to him. It was a terrifying notion but it wasn’t one he could let himself dwell on. He had a mission. First, they would fix Papyrus’ hand and then he would find Frisk so things could be reset. He would rescue Frisk eventually and they would get to do-over this timeline.

It wasn’t healthy to indulge when he had a mission to complete that would flip everything on its head if successful. But he still couldn’t deny how nice it felt to have Doe hold his hand.

☆☆☆

“I HAVE THE UTMOST FAITH IN THE TWO OF YOU,” Papyrus had stated without any prejudice or hesitation at all.

Sans felt a little floored by his utter trust in Doe, and he couldn’t shake the feeling that this was important as she began to explain what the procedure they had agreed on. Sans had looked over her work and calculations and she already had such a fast grasp of the magic elements that Sans had told her about.

If she truly wanted to hurt them, she would be a very strong foe. Sans didn’t even want to think about Doe still possibly being the enemy, not when he was about to let her that close to his brother but he couldn’t help it.

The trust between them was certainly building but it was a slow and gradual process. And it was only helped along by Sans actually opening up and being honest with her and that was so terrifying for him. He wasn’t sure that he would be able to open up quickly enough not to lose her.

He shook his skull slightly. What was he even thinking about? He was losing her soon. She wouldn’t want to stay after helping Papyrus and Sans couldn’t expect her to as she had already shown them more kindness than he felt worthy of.

As they begun, Sans concentrated on making a replica of Papyrus hand but the moment his magic could be felt in the air, he saw Doe press down on her chest and look slightly uneasy

“that’s your soul reacting. don’t worry, i won’t call it out,” he promised her.

He was so damn tempted to see what her soul looked like but he wasn’t about to pull it out without her permission. He knew that would ruin everything that had been established between them. He wasn’t even sure if he would be able to keep himself in check and not reach out to touch it.

No, it was definitely staying inside of her chest.

Sans focused on his job of crafting the hand and tried to ignore how Doe and Papyrus opened gaped at him as he worked. If it hadn’t been such a demanding job, he would have cracked a joke but he needed to be serious.

Even the smallest mistake and Papyrus might not have full mobility. He couldn’t risk that.

Doe started to get ready to withdraw the bone marrow and Papyrus was being fussy about the needle. Sans worried for a moment that Doe might take a harsh tone with him, just like Gaster had always done, but she was extremely gentle and even offered that he could hold onto her shoulder. Sans felt a little uneasy at that but he was too focus on his magic to make any comment on it.

The syringe went in and Doe was able to withdraw what they needed but the instance she got the needle out of Papyrus, he stumbled back onto the sofa unconscious. The protective instinct in Sans flared up and he was just about to move and ruin the magic model in his hand but he managed to restrain himself. Well, after he panic-yelled at Doe.

He knew this could happen. It happened to himself when he used too much of his magic and basically a lot of magic had just left Papyrus’ body, even if it wasn’t the traditional way. Alphys had warned them about this.

“I think it just took it out of him. He’ll be fine,” Doe said as she watched Papyrus carefully. “Is the hand ready?”

“ready,” he confirmed and he felt like he had just aged a century.

Even if it had been expected and probably not harmful, it hurt his soul to see his brother fall lifelessly down, even if he was still breathing and very much alive. Sans had nightmares where Papyrus tumbled down like that before exploding into dust. It was one of his worst nightmares and it took every ounce of concentration not to let the images enter his mind.

He almost missed how Doe was about to get herself hurt.

“if you touch it, it’ll hurt you. let me move it.”

Sans moved the hand replica into the out-held needle and halfway through the two moved to the sleeping Papyrus. Doe gradually kept squeezing until all the matter inside the syringe was gone and the bone hand had started to solidify onto Papyrus’ wrist.

Instantly, Sans was reading how Papyrus was feeling and he felt relief flood his system when he knew that Papyrus was okay. The new appendage had a bit of Sans' magic in it as well but it still felt familiar and save and strong – like Papyrus.

Doe had actually managed to do it.

He would forever be in her debt for doing this for his brother, no matter where they went from here. He would never be able to repay her for this. He tried to ignore the warm feeling inside of his ribcage as she took and carefully inspected Papyrus’ new hand.

A small smile spread across her lips and it stayed, even as the two of them covered Papyrus with a blanket.

“I think we did it,” she whispered, almost as if she didn’t believe it herself.

Sans was so happy that he could hardly believe it.

“i can’t believe it worked. i can feel his soul accepting it. there’s a bit of my magic in there too but it’s mostly his own. you did it. i don’t know how i can thank you.”

“Don’t worry about it, Sans. I told you. I wanted to help him,” Doe told him sincerely. “Back when I thought you were a murderer of humans, Papyrus offered me comfort and friendship, even though I still feared him a little. He’s too pure for this world and I’m all too happy if I could help bring back just a bit of what he’s lost.”

Sans hated that she had needed to seek comfort in Papyrus because she thought Sans was a heartless murderer but he was humbled and happy that Doe saw Papyrus just like he did. Papyrus could be a bit much when you first met him but Sans truly believed he was the best monster in this world or any other.

He wanted to show comfort and he put a hand on her shoulder only for her to flinch away instantly and his non-existent stomach dropped.

Right.

She was still scared of him. Scared of what he could do. She had just witnessed him manipulating strong magic. It made sense that she didn’t want him to touch her. He shouldn’t have tried to pretend that they could be friends too.

All these thoughts went through his skull instantly and he was utterly confused when Doe rushed to reassure him. She was pulling back her sleeve to reveal an angry bruise on her shoulder. Papyrus had done that. By accident but he would hate himself if he knew that he had hurt his new human friend.

Sans stepped closer to inspect it.

“It wasn’t you, Sans,” Doe said.

Sans grabbed onto the frabric of the sleeve and pulled it further up. He tried not to touch her skin but it wasn’t really possible but surprisingly she didn’t flinch away like he had expected.

“you shouldn’t have told him to hold onto you,” he muttered.

This wasn’t good. She had gotten hurt. Again.

He might not have intended to put her in harm’s way when he brought her here but being surrounded by monsters usually meant injuries.

“Hey,” she said and surprised by reaching out and closing a hand around his shoulder. “He needed support. I think he just forgot how strong he is.”

“i think you forgot how strong we are,” Sans bit out but he hated how harshly it came across. He was just worried. And a bit discombobulated because she was touching his shoulder to comfort him now. “sorry. i didn’t…”

“It’s okay. It’s just surprisingly easy to forget that the two of you could kill me without any effort,” she said.

“we wouldn’t,” Sans promised.

Doe was right. He could kill her and it would be so easy. Well, physically it would be the easiest thing in the world for him but he wasn’t sure he would be able to live with the guilt. And he didn’t want her dead. Not one bit. Quite the opposite, in fact. He wanted her to stay here but he knew it couldn’t be reality. Like this just proved, she would get hurt and more tangled up in this mess if she stayed. He couldn’t do that to her but he could help her out and heal that bruise.

“hey, wait here,” he instructed before taking a shortcut to Undyne’s house and yanking her out from her chair without so much as a word and made a shortcut back to his house.

“undyne, I need to get some monster food in doe. you’re watching pap,” Sans said and ignored how Undyne glared at him like she was about to summon all her spears and make a shish kebab out of his bones.

“Excuse me?” Undyne growled but her face fell when she spotted Doe’s bruise.

Sans wasn’t entirely sure how Undyne would react. He knew that she would approve of physical hurt to get information, at least when their situation was this dire but Sans didn’t want her to think that he had actually resorted to that.

He had always been very adamant about hating any type of torture tactics. And gradually, Undyne had started to see that Doe wasn’t an end to their means of finding Frisk, so it was also entirely possible that she was angry at Sans if she thought he was taking her initial advice.

“It wasn’t Sans. Papyrus did it by accident because pulling out magic is apparently extremely painful.”

Sans hadn’t expected Doe to step into his defense so readily.

“You actually did it, didn’t you?” she asked in amazement. “You fixed his hand.”

“We don’t know for sure yet,” Doe said, always so cautious.

“can you watch him? his energy seems fine but i don’t want him waking up alone and we have nothing to heal doe here,” Sans said a little impatiently.

He didn’t want the two of them together in a room for longer than necessary. He hadn’t technically discussed the whole letting Doe go with Undyne in depth, though he suspected that she had already caught onto it.

“Of course, I’ll watch over my best student. Go to Grillby’s and ask for something with kick in. You know he has the good stuff if you ask for it,” Undyne said.

“It’s just a bruise,” Doe argued, always trying to down-play it. Sans wasn’t sure why she did that.

“Don’t even try, Doe. Sans has made up his mind and when he’s done that, there’s no talking him out of it. I’ll watch little Papyrus. Don’t worry. Go get healed up,” Undyne said.

Sans extended his hand to make them a shortcut to Grillby’s but instead Doe just rolled her eyes and insisted on walking. As they left, Undyne said that she liked her.

Sans wasn’t sure what to make of any of this. He was feeling so very conflicted. Undyne should be pissed at him for being so soft-handed with Doe. And Doe should be pissed at him for letting her get hurt, even if it had been unintentional.

Well, actually Doe had a whole plethora of reasons to be angry at him but she somehow wasn’t. Sans couldn’t figure her out. She was too kind and too moral to get mixed up in this and Sans felt responsible for dragging her into all of this mess.

He knew she would be leaving soon but the mark she had left behind would linger. He would never be able to forget the human who helped his brother get his hand back. He knew he would never be able to forget her across timelines because there was something about her energy that captured his attention.

Sans knew this wasn’t a good thing. He could not let himself become too attached. The sooner she left, the less it would hurt. But first, he needed to make sure she got healed.

☆☆☆

_Frisk was grinning manically at him and their eyes were not their own. Sans knew that this wasn’t Frisk, not the real Frisk that he had come to know. Frisk had been a friend but they were also just a curious kid and Sans knew what it was like to have strong powers and feel like what you did didn’t have any consequence._

_Sans wasn’t sure why he remembered everything but it was horrible. He could feel the sinking feeling of being in the void for too long when everything shifted around him._

_And then Papyrus was there, too far away and out of Sans’ reach. Frisk was approached him with dust all over that damned striped shirt. Sans wanted to interfere to spare his brother from what he knew was coming but he couldn’t move._

_He could never move. He could just watch and build up rage that would help him launch attack after attack on Frisk later. But it was all hopeless. It was all pointless. They would never get out of here. They were forever trapped in this damned loop of misery and repeat._

_Sans wanted to scream as Frisk struck Papyrus but the screams wouldn’t come to his throat as he watched his beloved brother be murdered at the hand of someone he considered a friend once._

_He had fought his whole life to protect Papyrus. He had thrown everything into being the protective brother but he was failing him. He was failing him again. He couldn’t do anything._

_No. No._

_It couldn’t be real. Papyrus would come back again, right? He had to but what if he didn’t? What if this was real and he was losing him for good? Sans felt like his soul was fracturing._

_No, it could not be permanent. But then it meant he would have to watch this again. And again._

_Not again._

_No. No. No. No!_

_Wait, was Papyrus calling his name? It didn’t make sense. Papyrus was dead._

_All that remained was the demonic Frisk who suddenly started to come at him. Sans was so angry and he flipped over Frisk with ease. He should just kill the kid right here. It wouldn’t matter because they would just come back but he had to do something to avenge his brother._

_But Frisk seemed to pull out a knife from nowhere and it caught him right in the eyeball. It hurt but it didn’t hurt like a knife. And who was calling his name?_

Sans blinked awake, completely disoriented and he wondered if he was waking up after a reset or a nightmare but he didn’t expect to feel a very scared soul in the room with him.

“doe?” he asked but that couldn’t be right.

What would she be doing here? Where was Papyrus? Frisk? And why was she pinned beneath him? “what? what are you doing here?”

Wait. She was pinned beneath him! No, no, no! He hadn’t hurt her, right?

He would never forgive himself. As a moment passed, it became easier to recognize the time before as a nightmare but he still wasn’t sure what she was doing in his bed. Why would she even dare to come near him when he was like this?

It was highly dangerous. Sans tried to put as much distance between them as possible and he pulled hid duvet up to over his exposed ribcage. He didn’t want her to see him like this. He felt all to vulnerable already.

“I… I heard you having a nightmare. I tried to wake you by knocking on the door but you weren’t listening… So I tried to shake you awake.”

What? Was she insane? He could have _killed_ her.

“i… what? did i hurt you?” he asked and he felt very relieved when she shook her head.

If he had… he wouldn’t have been able to forgive himself.

“I mean, you kind of scared me but that was my fault. I thought I could just wake you but when I got near you grabbed hold of me and…”

He had touched her without permission again. This couldn’t be happening.

“Hey,” Doe said and her voice turned impossibly soft and she even reached out to place a hand on his arm.

He wasn’t sure why she was even willing to touch him after what he had just done to her.

“I messed up. I’m the one who should be sorry,” she said but it didn’t make any sense. She didn’t have anything to apologize for.

“i could have hurt you. when i fall asleep… i lose track of the reality because all the memories of alternative timelines come flooding back. i remember bloodshed and resets and being trapped in an endless loop until frisk finally got us out,” Sans confessed and he was a bit more vulnerable and honest than he had planned to be.

But she was sitting on his bed, touching his arm so gentle and despite everything she didn’t look afraid. She looked like she just wanted to understand and Sans hated letting people in. He hated to show vulnerability in any way but she deserved his honestly after everything she had done for him.

“I’ll go make us tea and be right back,” she said and got up from the bed.

Sans fell back onto his bed and smothered his face with his pillow. He was screwing everything up. Just the moment he thought that she might stop being afraid of him he did something like this. He should just make a shortcut and disappear for a little while but he knew that would worry her, so he didn’t.

He just sat in the darkness and listened as she pottered around the kitchen to make tea. He didn’t deserve this. He didn’t deserve someone who woke him from nightmares and made tea for him to calm down.

When she returned with two mugs of teas, she handed his over but then stayed lingering by his bed somewhat awkwardly.

“thanks. you can sit down. i won’t try anything. scouts’ honor,” Sans joked.

She let out a snort but sat down anyway. “Like you was ever a scout.”

“i could have been,” he argued but even he didn’t believe that. He sipped his tea carefully.

He needed to ask her. He needed to know. Even if she was probably heading out tomorrow morning and leaving his life forever, he still needed to know.

“are you scared of me again?”

She seemed completely relaxed at the question and sipped her tea. Then she turned to look at him right in the eye sockets and she certainly didn’t look afraid.

“No, not really. You caught me off guard but it was because I was being careless. It won’t happen again.”

“no, it probably will. humans who befriend monsters always end up getting hurt and caught in the cross-fire. just look at frisk. why are you still here, doe?”

She needed to know what she was getting herself into. This wasn’t an easy life. It would never be an easy life. She deserved better. And she should be getting ready to leave this place behind but Sans had a feeling that she was lingering for some reason that he couldn’t comprehend.

“Things will be different when I go back,” she said quietly. “I’m different and I can’t be the person I was before. I can’t be the trembling victim they expect me to be. But I can’t tell them the truth about you guys either because they would just throw me in jail as a monster sympathizer. I can’t turn back the clock to a simpler time and I’m not ready to face everything quite yet.”

Sans knew that wasn’t entirely true. He was counting on being able to turn the clock back. It was the mission to turn the clock back to a time before the war to avoid this grim future. He watched as she got more comfortable on his bed and Sans couldn’t help but enjoy the intimacy of it, as innocent as it was.

“Want me to leave?” she asked and looked up over the rim of her mug as she took another sip.

He wanted to say yes. It would have been the right answer for her. But Sans was selfish when it came down to it. He was simply enjoying her company too much to send her away. Not for tonight but not out of New New Home either. It would have to be her decision to leave because Sans knew himself well enough that he wouldn’t be able to push her out, as he had already become too invested despite his best efforts.

“no, i don’t want you to leave,” he said honestly.

It was the truth and it was about time he started being completely honest with her. He couldn’t keep his walls up forever. Toriel had told him that it wasn’t healthy to refuse to let people in and some day he would meet someone who would tear down all his walls.

Sans could never have imagined she would be someone like Doe or that they would meet under these circumstances but he couldn’t deny that there was something about the fiery and stubborn human now falling asleep on his bed.

She was literally falling asleep next to him in bed. Sans knew that couldn’t just be the tiredness. She had meant what she had told him earlier. She wasn’t afraid of him or she would never have been able to let her guard down like this. Sans felt somewhat creepy watching her sleep, so eventually he turned around to face the other way.

But he had treasured those short moments of looking at her relaxed face and the steady rise and fall of her ribcage. He could never have something like this, not for real but for a night she brought him more comfort than he had felt in years and he allowed himself to enjoy it.

Just for now. She would be gone soon enough. Sans wouldn’t be able to bring himself to push her out, even for her own good but she was a smart human and she knew this couldn’t last. She had a life to return to and she hadn’t agreed to be partnered up with the monsters.

In the morning things would be different but tonight, Sans could let himself pretend.

When he was younger, he used to share a bed with Papryus and he remembered how he had only really felt okay when he could wrap his arms around his little brother to ensure that he was still there and Gaster hadn’t thrown him into the void or something similarity horrific.

Sans didn’t even realize that he reached out to cuddle closer to Doe, seeking her warmth and comfort in his vulnerability.

☆☆☆

It felt too melancholy to have a final day with Doe before she would walk out of their lives forever. Sans kept quiet most of the day and just observed how Papyrus and Doe dove into various activities.

She would be breaking his little brother’s heart when she was leaving. She hadn’t meant for it but he knew that it would happen. Despite Papyrus being utterly awesome in Sans' opinion, at lot of monsters and humans didn’t quite get him and he found it difficult to make real friends. Doe had become that to him during such a short period of time and Sans felt partly terrible for bringing his brother close to this human, only for him to lose her when they had become friends.

But Doe could never stay. He had screwed that up by bringing her here like he had.

He had sent Papyrus floating up to bed on that final night and he couldn’t help but notice how Doe didn’t shift back to move away from him despite space being freed up.

It was just so easy to talk to her now. Light banter and small smiles came all too easy. Still, Sans hadn’t been prepared to hear her actual real name.

He could undoubtedly have figured it out on his own but he purposely hadn’t crossed that line. Alphys would be able to hack into her employment records so easily but it had felt too much like an intrusion of privacy. He had never thought that she would actually trust him with her name.

It was a rather beautiful name and it suited her but he couldn’t help but feel happy when she admitted to liking the nickname that she had gotten while living here. She would probably always be Doe to him.

He was still mulling over the gravity of her revelation but he could tell from the tense lines in her shoulders that she still had something that she wanted to tell or ask him.

“but that wasn’t what you wanted to say, was it?” he asked gently, slightly surprised just how soft and gentle his voice came out.

She always brought out his soft side when they were talking alone during the evenings over tea. It was a dangerous thing but it would be over soon, so Sans let himself indulge for just a final night.

“No. I… I wanted to ask you about something before I leave. If you don’t want to help that’s perfectly fine, I won’t blame you. It’s just something I’ve wondered about for a very long time and I think this might me my only chance to…”

She was adorable with her muttering and he couldn’t help but let out a little laugh. She was so nervous but at the moment he felt like there wasn’t anything he wouldn’t do for her. He surprised himself a little by reaching out to place a hand on her arm but she didn’t flinch away. She looked a little surprised and cut off her rambling but she didn’t look scared or uncomfortable.

“just ask. i probably wouldn’t refuse you anything,” Sans said, being a little more honest than he had intended.

“I wanted to see my soul,” she spurted out.

Sans wasn’t sure how to even react to that request. She wanted…? His own soul reacted slightly in response, growing warmer. She couldn’t be serious. Why would she allow herself to be so vulnerable with him? And a better question, would he be able to keep his hands to himself if he obliged? It would be so tempting to reach out.

“you want to see your soul? you want me to pull out your soul?” he asked, unsure if she knew the implications of her request.

“Yeah… Ever since you monsters emerged from the underground and spoke about soul colors and traits, I’ve always been curious. Humans have tried to build machines to show it but nothing has been successful. So our own souls are still a mystery to us. You don’t have to, if you don’t want. It was probably a stupid question,” she added the last part in a mutter and folded her arms.

Sans really hadn’t meant to make her doubt herself but he just wanted for her to know what she was getting herself into but he understood the curiosity. He shared it even, since he had never been able to get a proper read on her soul.

“no! it’s just… well, having your soul pulled out is possible but it leaves you very vulnerable. it’s the easiest for monsters to deal damage directly to an exposed soul. that’s why we pull it out of your body when we attack you. it makes our job easier,” Sans explained.

“Oh,” she said but she still didn’t retreat her request or look that worried.

“and i’m extremely good at manipulating souls,” he felt it was necessary to warn her. “that’s how i can hold you in place. i clutch onto your soul and hold it in place with my magic.”

He needed her to understand just what she was asking him. She had been scared of his magic only weeks ago and now she was literally willing to bare her soul to him.

“But I trust you, Sans. You wouldn’t hurt me,” she said with certainty.

Sans’ felt his soul grow even hotter within his ribcage. She sounded genuine. She really did trust him this much? When had that happened? Maybe somewhere since he had actually started to explain things to her rather than just deflect at every turn.

“if you’re sure. to be honest, i’ve been dying to take a look myself,” he confessed.

“Oh?”

“i can see souls inside of their vessels to a degree but the reading i’ve gotten from you have been… confusing. remember, i’m a curious scientist too, ” he said with a smile.

The look she gave him made him shift his position on the sofa. He truly felt like she was seeing right through him sometimes.

“Okay, so how do we do it?” Doe asked.

“i, eh, pull it out. we could also enter into a fight and it’ll come out on its own but i don’t think that’s a good idea. may i?” he asked and moved his hand closer to her chest.

“Yeah,” she said and there was only a slight tremble in her voice.

Sans wanted to reassure her but he didn’t know what to say and he was too focused on pulling out her soul with minimal discomfort. Still, he knew he had to seek consent just one more time.

“ready?”

She nodded and Sans scanned her eyes. He drew in a quick breath before he started to pull out her soul very slowly. She tried to lean into his touch and follow his hand, so Sans put a hand on her shoulder to keep her in place.

As the soul came out, Sans’ first reaction was awe. Blue and green light danced around the room and he smiled when Doe closed her eyes. She opened them again so carefully and awe likewise painted her expression, as she watched her own soul.

Sans could understand that.

It was a very beautiful soul and quite unique. Sans had read about duality souls but he had never seen one in person before. He felt a wave of sympathy wash over him because he knew this likely meant she had gone through trauma when she had been around the age of Frisk when they fell into the Underground.

But she had done well because her soul was shimmering and the light was strong. She was strong. It would be so easy to reach out and touch it. She would be putty in his hands but he couldn’t do that to her, even if it meant that he would be able to ask her about Frisk and she would tell him all that he knew.

“Is there something wrong with it?” she asked him, as he intensely studied how the colors interchanged and debated the moral dilemma he had put himself in.

“no,” he said in almost a whisper. “it’s just i’ve never seen a soul like this in person. i suspected that might be what you possessed because i couldn’t pin it down initially but to see it… you have a duality soul, doe.”

“A what?” she asked, slightly worried and he smiled to reassure her.

“a duality soul. It’s something old research mentioned, research from when we were still above ground and coexisted with humans. normally, a human soul takes on the most dominant trait of the person. but humans are born with multicolored souls, in fact they encompass all seven colors. but over time as the child grows into the person they will become as adults, one dominant trait emerges. it happens at different ages but always before puberty. and in rare cases, a soul will take two dominant traits but only if… only if something almost shatter the soul at a fragile age…”

Sans moved his hand closer to her soul, so close but still not touching but he could feel the waves of fear coming off her and as a reaction the shatter lines became visibly with their bright red color. There it was; the determination woven into her soul. The reason she had been able to pull through a personal tragedy. Other monsters might have thought that a soul like this was too damaged but to Sans, it was utterly beautiful. Just like its owner

“what happened?” he asked carefully as he watched all the cracks and lines over her soul glow red.

“Car crash,” she blurted out. “My whole family died. I was eleven.”

He made sure to pull back his hand a little because her words had come out so fast and it might have been without meaning to share them, which meant that Sans might be manipulation her by just being close, even if he was not touching her soul. He didn’t want that. He couldn’t do that to her, even if it might help him find Frisk. That wouldn’t excuse it, right?

“What are the red lines?” she asked.

“they’re called shatter lines. it’s determination. it’s a soul color too. it’s the color frisk has and some think it’s the most powerful of the soul traits. and it’s theorized that duality souls are nearly fractured souls held together only by determination. duality souls have cracks running along them. most souls have some scars but these run deeper than others. your soul barely held on.”

“It’s broken?” she said and her voice almost broke on the word.

“no, it’s the opposite of broken, doe,” Sans said with conviction. “it almost broke but you didn’t let it. the scars show that you’re a survivor. determination kept you together and see how your two traits shimmer and glow? that means they’re strong.”

“Really?” she asked, fascination clear on her face as she leaned closer to him to watch her soul.

“really,” Sans confirmed. “you most likely wasn’t done reaching a dominant trait when everything almost shattered. as your soul was struggling to be put back together again, two traits emerged side by side. integrity. kindness.”

“I don’t think that’s me, Sans. I’m not kind and I don’t have integrity.”

Sans scoffed without meaning to. She couldn’t be serious. She definitely was kind and she had strong morals. It fit her perfectly and Sans wasn’t sure why she couldn’t see that. Well, if she didn’t, then he would just have to tell her.

“but you are. you have showed so much kindness towards everyone i’ve seen you meet here. you’re incredibly compassionate and you always try to do the right thing. you stand up for what you believe in but you’re not closed-minded and you’re willing to let new facts change your mind, if you see reason in them. i’ve never quite seen a soul like this,” Sans confessed as he watched her soul float over his palm as she took in his words.

“Well, that would make sense if you’ve never seen a duality soul, as you called it.”

“no, not that. i mean, yeah, that too but… your colors burn so brightly. for most people the soul dulls as the person becomes an adult and if i recall correctly especially duality souls are said to be even more dim because of their past trauma. but yours, it shines brightly. like you still have so much hope left. and even after the way the world has looked these past four years,” Sans explained.

Sans was suddenly reminded of how close they were sitting and how he still had a hand on Doe’s shoulder. He reluctantly removed it and moved back a little but the moment he had a free hand, he felt it drifting towards the bright soul of its own volition.

It would be so easy.

Just one little touch and he could know the things he knew that Doe had been keeping from him. It wouldn’t even have to hurt her. He was so close to touching it. He would be gentle. He was just looking to save his family.

“Sans?”

It was the worry in her voice that startled him out of making a huge mistake and he let his hand drop.

“sorry.”

“What was that?”

“prolonged exposure to a human soul can be tempting for someone like me. i manipulate souls so easily and if i were to touch it, i’d control the person. you,” he explained.

In hindsight, he should probably have warned her about that beforehand but he had been so curious to see her soul and he hadn’t wanted her to back down.

“i forgot to tell you, if someone has hold of your soul, even without actually touching, like i do right now, they’ll feel compelled to obey you. do what you want. answer your questions.”

“Sans, I thought you were officially done with scaring me,” she said and she tried to hard to sound tough but her voice came out too shaky.

Sans could just ask her right now if she knew where Frisk might be. The words were on the edge of his teeth.

“this was a really dangerous request, doe. you’re really testing my control. you know how much i want frisk back and you serve up a perfect way for me to get what i want without actually hurting you,” Sans said, toying with the idea of going through with it.

He had certainly done worse than this to protect his family but as he watched her worried, but still trusting face, he felt like he might never forgive himself for this.

“if i hadn’t let you into my home, into my brother’s life, if you hadn’t helped him, if you hadn’t made me care then i could do it without remorse. i understand the pull to give into dark impulses and move through life without attachments… it makes things easier but it also makes life worse. it makes life empty. sorry.”

If only he hadn’t let her get close, this would have been so easy and he could be on the way to save Frisk this instance but he had let himself get too close. He couldn’t do this to her. Before he changed his mind, he pushed her soul back into her body and took the temptation away from himself.

Doe would hate him for making her and he couldn’t live with that. She deserved much better than that. She had helped restore Papyrus’ hand and she had been nothing but kind to him and his brother.

“i’m sorry,” Sans repeated. “soul rays make me go slightly crazy. i didn’t mean to scare you.”

“Why didn’t you go through with it? Why didn’t you make me tell you what you think I know? After all this time, you could finally have your answer,” she said and why did she have to see right through him like this?

Sans didn’t know how to explain it to her, so he answered her question with another question.

“why didn’t you dust me when you had the chance? you didn’t even know me then.”

“Well, I suppose the integrity and kindness might have gotten in the way,” she said after a brief moment of contemplation. “But honestly, I didn’t want to hurt you, Sans.”

It was too kind of her. She should want to hurt him after all that he had done to her. He hadn’t been nice to her, at least not at first and no matter how he tried to frame it, he had kidnapped her and held her here against her will for weeks.

“and i didn’t want to make you do something you didn’t want. i’m sorry for kidnapping you. you have enough reason to hate me already. i don’t need to add to that list,” he said.

He wasn’t sure why her hating him made him feel _this_ bad but it did. She had come to matter a lot to him in the relatively short time he had known her.

“I don’t hate you,” she said without hesitation.

She didn’t? But? “why not?”

“You’re not the big, bad, strong, ruthless monster you want everyone to see when they look at you, Sans. You’re compassionate. You would do anything to protect the people you love and you’re extremely clever and perspective. And despite all the threats, which I would really appreciate if you dropped, you haven’t actually done much to hurt me. I’m leaving tomorrow and I need you to know that I _don’t_ hate you. I…” Doe said but she was grasping for the words now. “I asked to see my soul and you showed me. You warned me beforehand and I didn’t heed your warning properly. That’s on me. We’re good, Sans. I really don’t want to part enemies.”

Enemies.

What a ridiculous word. All of humanity thought of the monsters as the ultimate common enemy but they were so wrong. None of the monsters that had emerged from the Underground had wanted to take over the humans’ world. They had just wanted to be part of it.

Sans still didn’t see all of humanity as his enemy and he certainly didn’t see Doe, kind and unselfish Doe, as his enemy. He had hoped that they might even become allies somehow but even if they weren’t, she still wasn’t an enemy.

“we were never really enemies, doe. you just thought so.”

“Friends then?” she asked and it was such a simple question but it meant so much more.

Sans reached out to take her outreached hand and shake it. But a handshake just wouldn’t do. He would be losing her tomorrow and he need to hug her, just one time and she hadn’t been adverse to his touch lately, so he felt comfortable enough to pull her into a hug.

“i’m glad we’re on the same side,” he said.

She was still protecting her own kind and withholding information but Sans had also seen how she had taken all the information that she had learned here to heart. She wanted the war stopped just as much as he did.

She wouldn’t be able to help him find Frisk but she had restored his hope in humanity a bit after seeing too many malicious acts. She was a good human and he was thankful for being able to call her a friend now as she would part and leave him.

It would be okay, even when she left. They would find Frisk one way or another. They simply had to.

☆☆☆

Sans hated having to send Doe in undercover at the POCAM facility but it had by far been the best option to get Frisk out of there without anyone getting harmed. It didn’t have to mean that Sans’ liked it.

She was in far too much danger.

And it hurt listening in on her conversations and hearing her scathing words against the monster race as a whole. Sans knew that it was a play. She had reassured him of that before they parted but it was difficult to remember sometimes.

He was so used to having humans hate him and his kind. Objectively, he couldn’t really blame Doe if she felt like that as well. They had gotten off to a very rocky start and even with how far they had come and how much Sans had started to care for her, he still wouldn’t blame her for hating his guts.

She had insisted on being a part of this dangerous mission. Sans knew he had no way of convincing her of otherwise. She felt responsible for Frisk and Sans could see how bad she felt about not having done more to stop the kdinapping when she had originally witnessed it.

Sans didn’t blame her for that one bit. Nor did he blame her for holding onto the information for so long. He had been utterly stunted when she had actually come running back and confessed everything to him.

She just had one simple wish: no humans should be harmed.

It made everything very difficult and Sans had a bad feeling as he and the team was gearing up to storm the facility at the arranged time. Something could easily go wrong and he knew that he would do everything in his power to keep his promise to that stubborn and goodhearted human.

He could only think of one thing that would make him break his promise not to kill anyone and that would be if any of his team was about to be dusted, and murder of a POCAM agent would be the only way out.

If it was just himself, then he would rather turn to dust than break her promise but he wasn’t sure how he would react if it were Papyrus that was caught in the crossfire. His promise to protect his brother trumped everything else.

It was tense listening in on Doe’s conversation with Frisk in the interrogation room as they waited for their cue to storm the building. Sans was pleasantly surprised when the initial part of the plan went off almost without a hitch. The only problem was that Undyne became tied up in battling and she couldn’t go find Mettaton like planned but Doe and Frisk went instead until Undyne could sneak away as the rest of the team continued to battle and knock out anyone who came near them in the big ground floor reception.

Sans could hear over the communication that there were some trouble with Mettaton but thankfully, it sounded like they managed to resolve it. By the time, Doe, Undyne, Mettaton and Frisk made it to them, they had restrained all of the humans in the facility that they had encountered.

When Sans saw Doe and Frisk step through the door, he smiled in the middle of the chaos. Frisk looked okay. They were smiling happily and running into Papyrus’ arms.

Papyrus was blabbering and crying and Sans could feel the emotions affect his soul as well but he wasn’t quite done. Even with the guards and agents restrained, it was still better to be safe than sorry and he wanted to knock out the rest of them.

“brace yourself,” Sans announced and looked over to Doe and Undyne.

He released a power pulse from his core and the humans who hadn’t been knocked unconscious, fell asleep now. Undyne had taken the hint and stepped in front of Doe to ensure that she hadn’t been affected by the blast and Papyrus had likewise blocked Frisk.

“we’re done here. let’s go,” Sans said and he felt pretty exhausted from using so much magic to incapacitate all of these humans. “the others are holding open a path but we need to move before reinforcements arrive.”

Things were going so well and Sans wasn’t about to test their luck. It was time to hightail out of here while they still had the chance. But of course, Alphys had to come onto the common line and speak into all of their ears.

“S-sans! This p-place is where they store all the monster files! I-if you could get my ring into t-the server room, I c-could erase it!”

He felt frustration rise in his body. This was not the time. They finally had Frisk and that meant that they would be able to reset and it wouldn’t matter that the human government had information on them. However, Sans knew that it wasn’t guaranteed Frisk could reset, just like Alphys knew. It was probably the reason she wanted to make sure they did as much as they could to protect themselves in this timeline.

But Sans still hadn’t given up hope that everything could be reset and he had a bad feeling about sticking around here longer than he had to.

“it’s too risky, alph. we need to get pap, frisk and doe out of here,” Sans said.

“B-but this might be our o-only chance!” Alphys argued and Sans really wanted to rip out the earpiece where it was taped to the side of his skull. This was doing nothing good and they needed to get moving.

“But Alphys is right, Sans. If we can delete everything they have on us, we can set them back months, if not years!” Undyne started to argue and Sans wanted to punch her.

He really didn’t need for all of them to be ganging up on him. He was just about to open his mouth and argue that deleting the information had not been their mission and it was simply too dangerous to do that when Doe spoke up.

“Undyne will take Papyrus, Frisk and Mettaton out while you have an open path. Sans and I’ll go to the server room and he can teleport us out afterwards,” she said.

Sans knew his protests would fall to deaf ears now. And he felt his own resistance drain out of him at Doe’s suggestion. She trusted him that much? It was touching really and it left him feeling a little off-balance.

“Come on,” she said and extended a hand towards Sans.

This was a bad idea. But it wasn’t like he could deny Doe anything. And with Alphys and Undyne agreeing with the idea as well, he couldn’t protest much. At least this way Papyrus, Frisk and Undyne would be safely out but that still left Doe in trouble if something went awry. Sans wasn’t sure if he could protect her as long as he wasn’t allowed to give a single killing blow to anyone.

“undyne, get them all safe. we’ll see you at the safe house,” he said through clenched teeth anyway.

“You’re not the boss of me, Sans,” Undyne argued but then caved immediately. “But okay.”

“SANS, I THINK I SHOULD GO WITH YOU TOO AND…” Papyrus started to argue but Sans didn’t even let him finish. He had enough to worry about with Doe still being in danger and he was not letting his little brother stay here under any circumstances.

“no, pap. you look after frisk, okay? i’ll be fine,” he promised, even if it felt like a lie.

“DOE, YOU BETTER PROTECT HIM,” Papyrus said and started straight at Doe.

Sans was a little taken aback by his brother’s words but now wasn’t the time to process them.

“I will, Pap,” Doe promised.

Doe started running down the hall and Sans followed as they were still holding hands. He let himself look back as they fled and he wondered if he would ever be able to see his family again. Doe found the server room easily and Sans ripped off the door just as easily. So far so good.

“Alphys, tell me where the ring needs to go,” Doe said into the ring that was also her earpiece and could transform into a tiny USB stick.

“T-there should be a computer somewhere. Your ring will fit into a USB port.”

Sans found the computer quickly, Doe plugged in the ring and Sans took off his earpiece and handed it to Doe now that she couldn’t use her own.

Suddenly, Doe froze and the next second Sans heard a threatening voice. He reacted swiftly by pulling the two of them behind some of the servers but he knew this would get ugly. He remembered that voice and how the man had talked to Doe before.

“Don’t think I’m blind, skeleton. I saw you and your little inside man, or should I say woman. She really had everyone fooled but not me. She looks way too innocent to be capably of betrayal like that.”

Sans felt rage build in his chest and he intended to throw the man on his ass and show him a bad time, even if he couldn’t go all the way and kill him.

“you’re a fool if you think we need to depend on other humans to kick your ass,” Sans said and stepped out from his hidden position slightly as he raised his hand to throw the man against the wall but nothing happened. Sans felt fear like he hadn’t for a very long time when he realized that he couldn’t seem to access his magic at all.

That meant they were trapped here. Not only could he not use his offensive magic but he could not make a shortcut. They could not get out.

“Having performance issues? Tough,” the man said with a maniac smile and Sans watched as he moved and fired his gun.

Sans threw himself back, acting as if hit even though the bullet had just narrowly missed him. Doe came rushing to his side, worry and fear painted across her face.

“he missed,” Sans said to reassure her, “but i wanted him to think that i was hit.”

“You’re done for, monster,” the man called out and he sounded furious. “We’ve been working on a little something to neutralize your pesky powers. It’s a little fairer on the battlefield, isn’t it? Come out here. I’d love to break your bones until you’re nothing more than dust.”

Sans tried and failed to reach out for his magic yet again. He still couldn’t feel it. He had never felt so helpless in his entire life.

“i can’t make a shortcut,” he told Doe.

Maybe he could fight the guard with brute force but it wouldn’t bode well for him and when he wasn’t allowed to actually kill the guard to put him down, he knew it would be impossible to stop him.

The fall of the guard’s footsteps came closer and Doe was frantically yanking him away and out of sight as he tired to make a plan that wouldn’t get Doe hurt. Clearly, the man believed her to be a spy for them, which meant she would be locked away unless Sans could convince the gun-wielding human that she wasn’t working with the monsters.

It was too late for him but it might not be too late for her.

“Alphys, any help? Sans’ magic doesn’t work! It’s dead,” Doe said and looked up at his eyes while she held the apparently useless earpiece. Sans wasn’t sure what Alphys could have done for them in this situation anyway and he was secretly glad that his brother wouldn’t be able to listen in to him getting dusted.

“I saw your human pet too. Where is she, Sans? Did you Stockholm Syndrome her or was she already a filthy monster sympathizer when you took her?” the guard taunted.

It hit a little closer to home than Sans wanted to admit but it also gave him an idea how to protect Doe. At least this way, she might be able to live a normal life.

“you have to take me in.”

“What? I will not,” she argued and looked horrified at the notion.

“it’s the only way. he’s furious and ready to rip me to shreds. without my magic and without playing to win with bloodshed, i can’t beat him. if you take me in, you might convince them you’re still on their side,” Sans said, quickly in a whisper. It was the only way.

“Sans, if they can neutralize your magic, you might never get out of here. You heard him, they already don’t trust me,” Doe argued in an equally hushed voice.

“then it is just the sacrifice for freeing frisk and undyne. i’m okay with that,” Sans said.

“You don’t suit being a martyr,” Doe anger-whispered back and she looked so angry with that frown.

“frisk will set time right,” Sans argued.

“You don’t know that!” Doe countered.

And he didn’t but he had faith in that little human and right now that was the best he could hope for. But if Frisk couldn’t reset, he had to find the best way to protect his friends and family and this was the only option.

Sans took his earpiece out of Doe’s hand and crushed it to dust.

“here,” he said and offered her a pair of handcuffs. “it’s the only way, doe. please.”

She looked so sad and conflicted but hesitantly, she cuffed his hands behind his back. Sans tried not to think of the torture he was likely submitting himself to. Hopefully, it would be over fast as none of them would know about his low HP and maybe they would kill him accidentally early on. That would probably be the most merciful ending he could hope for.

As the handcuffs clicked into place, Doe turned to face him and she put a hand on the side of his skull and traced her thumb over his cheekbone, which left a pleasant tingle going through his whole body. For the briefest moment, he wondered what might have been able to happen if he wasn’t going to die.

“I promise I’ll do everything in my power to get you out of here, Sans,” she promised.

“i believe you,” he said because he did.

However, he wasn't sure that her everything would be enough to get him out of here. But he didn’t want to tell her that.

Doe manhandled him out into the open and the guard instantly pointed his gun at the two of them.

“Stupid monster didn’t notice I picked his pocket. Sometimes, they really are as dumb as animals, right?”

Her voice didn’t sound like her at all. She was trying so hard to be tough and cruel but Sans took note of the slight shake of her voice but he hoped he was only able to pick up on it because he knew her so well.

“Captured by a little girl, huh? The almighty skeleton monster my ass. I don’t know about you, girl, but you’re definitely something. Move him this way.”

Sans wanted to bite something out but he thought it was better that he remained silent for the time being. However, he struggled as Doe pushed him forward just to keep up the act. Secretly, he was trying to remember what it felt like to have her hands on him because he had a sinking feeling that it would never happen again.

All too soon, Doe was ordered to release him as he was thrust into a room. He was still searching for his magic but he couldn’t feel it at all. He wanted to scream and kick up a fuss but he just stared at everyone with his hollow eye sockets and hoped that he terrified them.

Doe wasn’t out of the woods quite yet. She still had to convince the POCAM people that she wasn’t a spy. Sans hated putting her through this but they hadn’t had much a choice. He had been able to sense how much she hated being in this place but he prayed that she knew to keep up the pretend hatred until she was able to get out of here.

He might be trapped but he couldn’t let her be trapped as well. He had meant what he said before. He was fine with falling sacrifice himself but he didn’t want to drag anyone else into it.

But all the cards were in her hands now and he couldn’t do anything but watch and hope things would turn out okay for her.

☆☆☆

He could feel the pain from his newly broken arm but it was nothing against the pain of seeing her walk through the door. No, this couldn’t be happening.

Why was Doe still here? He knew she wouldn’t be allowed to just leave but why hadn’t she played up the victim role? How was she allowed to come in here? He wanted to speak to her so badly but he knew that they must have many eyes and ears on them, so instead he let his pupils vanish.

Right now they were enemies. He would have to convince them because Doe looked like she might crack any moment. She had been in here for too long. They had expected too much of her. This wasn’t fair.

Sans had to be her worst enemy to do his best to protect her probably fragile cover. If that shattered then both of them would be trapped and he couldn’t have that. He was still worrying himself sick with whether or not all the others had made it out safely.

Because of the commotion and having to destroy the earpieces none of them had it confirmed and Sans worried that his fellow monsters were trapped in rooms just like this and he couldn’t bear that thought.

Doe didn’t want to look at him but when she finally raised her gaze, she looked genuinely terrified as she met his eyes. The exchange was nothing like the soft glances over tea mugs late at night when it was just the two of them. This was the completely opposite and it hurt in Sans’ soul to know he would never be able to have that with her again.

“you again,” Sans said and he dropped his voice low and tore all emotion from it. It was best that he pretended not to have them at the moment. Still, he had to brace and force himself to say the next words. “i should’ve killed you when i had the chance.”

Doe flinched but it was only marginal and she seemed to straighten at his harsh words and she looked slightly more confident as she walked up to the table he was restrained on.

“You look a lot less scary like this. Exposed. Powerless. It’s a new look on you. You ought to remember who calls the shots now,” she said, her voice imitating Sans’.

Sans hated hearing her talk like this. However, no part of him was worried that she actually believed what she was saying because he could feel the steady pulse of her soul and her words and her body language might be able to lie but her soul was always truthful about her real intentions. It hadn’t been easy to read her in the beginning but since Sans had actually seen her soul outside of her chest, he had paid close attention and now he could tell.

“you like being the one who can exert power this time?” he asked and kept his tone hostile. “you like how the tables have turned on the horrible monster who took you? huh?”

It was easy to pretend but he knew that he couldn’t quite cover up his genuine fear. He hated being strapped down like some laboratory experiment. It was literally one of his worst nightmares since all that had happened with Gaster, as he was growing up. Being forced to move through the void had made for a terrible childhood but Sans did not want to know how far the humans might force him, if they didn’t accidentally kill him first. He was still hoping on that rather than being made to use his magic again.

“Was it worth it? For a human? All your little friends got out and left you,” Doe said and Sans stopped breathing for a moment. “How do you know Frisk hasn’t turned on you?”

Doe kept strolling around his bed but that wasn’t what was making his head spin. She had managed to tell him that all of their friends made it out okay. Papyrus was okay. Frisk was okay. All of them had made it out okay. He could die in here and they would be fine.

“family don’t betray family,” Sans stated.

“Family? Don’t be silly, Sans. Humans and monsters can’t be family,” Doe said in a disbelieving voice. He knew that she didn’t mean it but it still hurt to have the words leave her mouth. “It’s the reason humans who side with you are either imprisoned or exiled from humanity. We’re at war with each other.”

“the war is wrong. monsters only wish to end it,” Sans said truthfully.

“Tsk, tsk. You’re the one wiping out villages. You personally and your kind as a whole.”

Sans wasn’t quite sure why Doe steered the conversation that way but he followed her questioning naturally, as he figured that she had a plan with all of this. She usually had a plan. And despite everything seeming like she had truly switched to the human side, Sans still trusted her.

“we do not. i don’t. it’s lies. we fight back but don’t use deadly force unless necessary. we could never harm a whole city of innocents. go back. check the records. whatever you think you know, you don’t.”

“Sans, you must know this will only end one way. You erased our information, so you’ll have to give us new information in return. Perhaps about New New Home,” Doe said after she adjusted the visible earpiece, which must have come from those POCAM people. Sans wondered who was feeding her information and if he would have a chance to knock the person’s teeth in.

“no,” he stated plainly because he was not giving up any of his home’s weaknesses, even if was Doe asking under duress. It was just not happening.

“You will be tortured, Sans. You have made a lot of people angry. You are a murderer and a monster. They will not hold back. It would be a smarter decision to be open with us,” Doe said and Sans caught the edge of her voice.

She was worried about him getting hurt. Clearly, she had still kept tight-lipped about his HP situation, so it made sense that she worried that he wouldn’t survive torture. She was undoubtedly right.

“i wouldn’t betray my own,” Sans stated as a matter of fact but the moment he realized what he had said, he felt so guilty. He was throwing the thing Doe was doing right now in her face. She had switched sides after a long period of contemplation but she was working against her own kind to help his. He wanted to apologize but he couldn’t because he was supposed to hate her, or at the very least not care about her.

It was far from true and he hated that he couldn’t reassure her but he just hoped that she was smart enough to know that he didn’t mean it like that.

“That’s noble,” Doe said, gulping, and her voice shook a bit. She was clearly not okay and Sans felt horrible. But she was ever the stubborn person and she powered on despite her distress. “But is that not what your friend Frisk is doing? It is okay when it’s a human turning against their own?”

“it’s different. we are a close community of few monsters. you’re billions," Sans argued but his soul wasn’t in it anymore because he could see how he had hurt her.

“And yet, you continue to have the upper hand in this war? Is it just the magic? Something more? It’ll be easier to tell me now until it’s one of those POCAM guards coming in here with a hammer ready to smash up your bones.”

“i’m quite sturdy,” Sans lied and he caught how Doe’s lips twitched like she wanted to smile. They both knew it wasn’t true, so it felt like a little private joke between them.

Doe fell silent and Sans could sense that something was about to happen but he wasn’t sure what. He was just silently begging her not to do something stupid. She just had to get through this interrogation and then she could probably make up some excuse about wanting to be far away from the monster who kidnapped her. It was the only way for her to be safe.

But when she turned back around to face him, Sans knew that she had something up her sleeve. She wasn’t just going to give up on him. It made him feel warmth in his chest at the same time it gave him chills because he wasn’t sure she could pull it off without help and he could not do a single thing as long as he was strapped down and unable to use his magic.

“You’re foolish if you think you can last in here for long,” Doe said and her voice had the same hard edge but then it dropped down and turned much softer. “When you had taken me, I kept thinking that there was only two options. Either you’d eventually kill me or I’d escape. I was wrong.”

Sans was in no way prepared for her to reach out and touch his cheekbone just like she had done in the server room before they had been caught. He leaned into the touch automatically, seeking comfort in her touch but he knew this couldn’t bode well.

The next moment she moved, and went from the magic blocking disk sat in the corner. Instantly, Sans started straining against the restraints but he knew he was physically too weak to get out of them without any magical boost.

He felt utterly helpless as a guard ran into the room and took hold of Doe. She was a little firecracker and even managed to get out of the guard’s hold. Sans could sense how her soul glowed fiercely inside of chest and he wondered for the briefest moment if she might have some magic in there.

He had never felt a soul burn that bright with the exception of Frisk fighting for their life. Sans wasn’t sure what he was doing to bring out that reaction in Doe but unfortunately he could not feel any magic in the room to save them.

“doe, what the hell are you doing?” he yelled as more people came running into the room and he knew that he was gone for.

But worse, she was gone for. They would know her loyalties now and she would be marked as a monster sympathizer and locked away and while Sans was trapped here. He couldn’t do anything at all to save her.

Why had she done this? He was not worth her sacrifice!

“you should have stayed out of this. you would have been okay,” he said through gridded teeth. “why would you not let me protect you?” he yelled.

He felt so angry and he could even feel his magic bubble up to the surface of his bones but it couldn’t escape. The human tech was still keeping it trapped within him but if it hadn’t, Sans had a feeling that he might have blown up the whole room in pure rage.

Doe did not deserve this. He felt something being injected into his shoulder blade and his vision instantly started going fuzzy. He managed to cast one final glance at Doe and he wanted to apologize for getting her involved in all of this but he couldn’t move. He couldn’t say anything. He was utterly useless to help her.

He was so sorry.

“Don’t hurt him!” Doe screamed and the words echoed inside of Sans’ skull as he fell unconscious.

He couldn’t say it but he spent the very last moments of his consciousness praying that Doe would not get hurt.

Sans knew hurt. He had lived through it, again and again. He could take it. He had even died before and he could take that again too, even if he might not be able to wake up from this one. But Doe didn’t deserve any of this. She was a good pure-hearted soul.

Part of him was angry for dragging her into this world but at the same time, he knew that she had made her choices herself. She had wanted to help Papyrus. She had wanted to save Frisk. And now she had wanted to break out Sans.

But he so wished that she wouldn’t get herself hurt trying to save him.

☆☆☆

Sans felt like he was dying. Something was killing him. He could feel pressure on his vertebrae and he wondered if this would be the killing blow that would erase him from existence.

He fought to regain consciousness and he managed to force his eye sockets to open, even as it took a moment for his pupils to regain focus. An enemy had a hand wrapped around his spine and he struggled to find that his body was strapped down.

What the hell was doing on?

“am I in an alternate timeline? are you here to kill me?” he asked the attacker who still looked a little blurry around the edges.

However, their soul didn’t feel threatening. In fact, it felt familiar and steady, even as his skull was clouded in confusion.

“No, idiot,” the feminine voice said and her voice was tinged with affection.

Doe? He felt how she drew back her hand and unclicked the restraints binding him to the bed.

“You’re in the same timeline. We rescued Frisk, you got captured and now I’m here to save your ass,” she said, clearly trying to reassure him. “Well, you’ll be doing the actual saving ‘cause you need to make us a shortcut. The sooner the better.”

“but they took you, the disk is still…” Sans was still trying to piece it together but he stopped dead in his tracks and all other thoughts went out of his head when he saw the red mark and slightly raised skin of Doe’s cheek.

Fury ignited within Sans and all promised of no lethal force evaporated from his mind instantly. Who had dared to hit her? He would make them pay for ever touching her.

“who did that? i’ll kill them. who laid a hand on you?” he asked and he knew that his pupils would have flickered out of existence and his voice had dropped threateningly.

Doe did not seem spooked one bit by it.

“Not important, Sans, and no killing in general,” she reminded him. “I got some help to come back and get you. I turned off the disk but we need to go before everybody comes back, okay? Can you make a shortcut? I doubt we’ll be allowed to stroll out the doors.”

Sans tried to feel for his magic and surely, it bubbled up to the surface of his bones but it felt extremely weak. His head still felt fuzzy from whatever they had injected into him and he doubted that he could even conjure up a good bone that wouldn’t just shatter the moment it came into contact with something.

Passing through the void wasn’t strictly his own magic but he had to depend on his own powers to make sure that he didn’t get lost or stuck. And taking a passenger required more strength than just moving himself.

“err… i’m not sure. i still feel subdued,” he said as he tried to sit up and almost tumbled down from the bed.

It was too dangerous.

Doe’s hands came up to catch him and he felt warmth spread over the bones she was touching. It was lovely and it almost made Sans’ soul short-circuit.

“eager to get you hands on my bones, huh?” he joked and then looked down himself and took notice that he was only wearing a sheet or he would have been all bones. He didn’t even have the energy to put some invisible mass around his body like he usually did. “actually where are my clothes?”

“Shortcut, Sans. We really need a shortcut,” Doe said urgently.

He jumped down from the bed and his legs almost gave out from under him. He knew that he was in no shape to travel through the void in this state but he could sense that they did not have many more options. Doe sounded truly desperate.

She reached out to steady him again and with her supporting him, he almost felt as if he might make it.

It had to just be a fathom feeling because of how he felt about her soul. Doe did not have magic abilities like Frisk or Sans would have seen it on her soul or felt it in the air before.

“i’m not in a good way,” Sans confessed. “if we go through the void, i might lose us, doe. it’s not safe.”

“It’s not safe to stay either,” she said and looked right into his eye sockets.

She was beautiful and Sans wondered if this would be the last time he would get to look into her eyes or feel how her presence made his soul feel at ease. He could not disagree that POCAM was dangerous and if they stayed, he would certainly die and she would be imprisoned.

He knew that but he also knew that the void could be a much worse fate. Doe didn’t know what the void could do. He had never explained it to her and he never wanted to because it was utterly horrible.

Sans felt a shiver go through his body. He had almost deteriorated in the void too many times. It was the thing that had first started his nightmares, even before Frisk came around with the resets. The void brought out your darkest fears and it made them feel real.

It made you feel utterly alone and unloved. It made you question all the choices you had ever made in your life. It made you feel as if you had done everything wrong and everyone hated you.

If you got stuck, you would lose your grip on reality but Sans wasn’t sure if you would actually die. He had a theory that your consciousness, your soul without its body, would be condemned to drift around in the nothingness for an eternity. You would never be granted piece.

Only nightmares and the all-consuming feeling of being alone.

He didn’t want to risk condemning them to that fate, which was the most likely outcome as he could barely stand on his own feet. Shortcutting two beings through the void required magic he was almost sure he couldn’t conjure up.

But then she was looking at him and he could feel her hope.

“I believe in you, Sans, and I’m right here. I know you can do it,” she said and held him slightly tighter. “You can do it, Sans.”

He wanted to tell her about the dangers. She should know what she was asking him to do but shouting voices shattered his considerations and he saw the doorknob jiggle. Any second the guards would be here and they would be trapped.

Doe had made her choice. And she was choosing to believe in him. Sans was sure it was the wrong choice but he didn’t believe in taking away people’s choices, no matter if he agreed with them or not. He would have to do this for her.

“hang on,” he told her and closed his arms around her and pressed her as close to his ribcage as she could possibly get. He had wondered if she would ever be closing her hands around his ribs but this was not how he had pictured it turning out. Still, as her hands closed around his bones, he felt his own soul react at the close proximity to her touch.

He was in too damn deep. So he took a deep breath and drowned in the feeling as he pulled them into the void.

Sans knew it was a mistake the moment he felt the chill go directly into his bones. He felt his spare magic flicker out entirely. He felt like he was babybones again and forced into this dark place with Gaster’s instructions of finding a way through. He had almost gotten consumed on that first time and it was only his fear that made him panic and trigger his magic so that he found his way back to Gaster’s laboratory where he was then reprimanded for failing.

He was scared now too, more for the human girl in his arms than himself but his magic would not work. He knew where he needed to go. He was picturing the safe house with all his might and he could see the path there but he could not gain momentum at all.

Strength seeped out of his arms and even as he tried to fight it, his arms let go of Doe and he just had to feel the terror of knowing he could not hold onto her. But she was stronger than him, which didn’t surprise him one bit, and he could feel how her hands around his ribs tightened to hold the two of them together.

It wouldn’t matter because he was stopped dead in his tracks.

This was all his fault. He had failed everyone when he hadn’t spotted the bomb before it went off and killed, traumatized and crippled his family and friends. He had been trying so desperately to fix it but Frisk would probably not even be able to reset.

It was a pipe dream a small voice whispered and the words echoed inside of Sans’ skull as he felt the icy sensation settle in his bones.

If something just touched them now, they would shatter. Only the bones in his ribcage seemed unaffected by the ice that usually meant that he was about to get stuck permanently if he did not move out. The trouble was he couldn’t find any energy to move.

He tried to send his apologies to Doe for condemning her to this void existence. He should have warned her and she might have chosen imprisonment instead of this. Sans only had nightmares outside in the real world and they were terrible enough, so he did not know how to endure it constantly in here when his body fell away but his mind and soul would forever be trapped here.

Worse, so would Doe’s.

_sorry_

_i’m so fucking sorry_

_i thought i could do it_

_but i’m weak_

_useless_

_broken_

_a coward_

The thoughts resounding inside of his skull sounded eerily like Gaster. It was unsettling to think that the mad scientist had forever branded him. Sans wondered if he had managed to shield Papyrus from the hurt by taking it all on himself. Probably not. He was a good for nothing lazybones.

Papyrus didn’t know but it was something that Gaster had called Sans originally and tiny Papyrus had imitated it and still called him it to this day. He didn’t remember where he learned the phrase and Sans couldn’t bear to tell him.

He sent out his apologies to Papyrus as well. He should have been a better brother.

Sans felt how he started to fade away and he tried to move his arms to close them around Doe for a final time. He felt hot at his center, where Doe was clinging onto him for dear life and somehow he managed to force mobility into his frozen extremities.

Wait, he could move? He shouldn’t be able to move at all.

He didn’t even spend a second considering why. He just poured all of his focus into the path he had mapped out. He needed to get Doe to safety. If just she got through, it would be okay.

Just a bit more. Just keep going. Come on.

Blackness edged into his vision but he kept going for as long as he could.

When he came to again, he was confused. Then he felt his body shift and he realized that he was in Papyrus’ arms who was also holding Doe. Being so close to two souls he knew and cared for managed to perk him up just a bit from his utter exhaustion.

Papyrus was okay.

Doe had made it out.

So had he.

It shouldn’t be possible but he could feel that his bones still had substance and he could also feel his magic, even if it was too burnt out to be used at all for a while. He caught the fragment of a sentence and he was enraged a new, which woke him up further.

“pap? what? what human hit doe?”

“It was…” Undyne started to say but Doe interrupted her and said that it didn’t matter.

Sans was just about to say that it very much did because he wanted to make the person pay for hurting her but she was right that it wasn’t the most important thing in this very second.

“We got here. You got us here, Sans,” she said and looked right at him and her nose graced his cheek slightly.

She was so damn close to him and Sans felt warmth spread through his bones again, which took away a bit of the bone-tired ache.

“i… no, i almost lost us,” he muttered. “something happened. i was lost and too weak.”

How had he suddenly been able to move? It shouldn’t have been possible. He had felt how he had started coming apart but then something had changed and he had felt a surge of new energy, just a nudge, but it had been enough.

It didn’t make any sense.

“NOW IS NOT A TIME TO CONTEMPLATE YOUR INADEQUACIES, DEAR BROTHER,” Papyrus said sternly. “WE ARE JUST HAPPY THAT YOU’RE BACK. WE WORRIED THE HUMANS WOULD DUST YOU AND WE WERE PLANNING A RESCUE MISSION BUT DOE GOT THERE FIRST.”

“yeah, she did, didn’t she?” he said and took another look at her, taking advantage of being able to study her face this close, as Papyrus insisted on holding onto them. Sans wasn’t complaining at all.

It was only then Sans noticed Frisk signing to him and he had to concentrate to make out the meaning of the signs. Frisk was thanking him for saving them. They said that they didn’t need to do that. And then Frisk signed asking why Papyrus was still holding him and Doe.

“no, problem, pal. of course, we came for you. you’re family. and you’re right, pap should probably put us down,” Sans said and felt his grin etch a little wider.

“SORRY BUT I JUST MISSED YOU,” Papyrus said but then proceeded to dump Sans and Doe onto the bed.

Sans felt like just a sack of bones and he rolled on top of Doe by accident.

“sorry,” he muttered and moved back before collapsing onto his back next to her.

He felt like he could sleep for a month. Though he doubted that the nightmares would leave him alone for that long. Extended exposure to the void always brought them on harder than normal. He would not be getting any proper shut-eye.

“I feel utterly exhausted,” Doe said.

“it’s the void. it drains you. we were in there for far too long,” Sans said and he wondered if she would be subjected to nightmares as well. He freaking hoped not. He wouldn’t wish it on his worst enemy. And Doe was far from that.

“Oh, I was ready to attribute it to being undercover and constantly having to lie while getting almost no sleep,” she said and chuckled, which was the most wonderful sound Sans had ever heard.

She had come straight out of the void and she was laughing? How was that possible?

“probably didn’t help,” he agreed.

“You two losers look beat,” Undyne said. “Have a rest, I’ll go fill in Alphys. Frisk, Papyrus you’ll be able to talk to them later. They look about ready to pass out. Oh and here, Sans,” Undyne said and tossed him a pair of shorts and his favorite blue hoodie. “No bare bones in front of the kids.”

Now Sans laughed too, even if he wasn’t sure how he managed it. “roger that, captain.”

It took all Sans’ energy to wiggle into the shorts and pull the hoodie around his shoulders, so with that done he just laid there. Doe had politely turned away but now she moved back around to face him.

“i’m to tired to zip it up,” he explained and closed his eye sockets.

“Ever the lazy skeleton,” she said teasingly in a soft voice.

He wasn’t prepared for her light touch against his exposed sternum. With clumsy fingers, she started to zip up his hoodie.

“Sorry,” she whispered.

“i don’t mind,” he confessed.

She looked surprised at his words and he found himself chuckling again. He had never felt this cheerful after coming out from a nearly failed void trip. Maybe it was because she had been there with him.

“your touch is always so gentle. it’s nice,” he explained. He was done hiding how much he enjoyed her proximity and her touch. He always felt as if his time with her was borrowed and that simply made it too short to hide how he felt.

“I just thought that you didn’t like it,” she said, confusion on her face as her fingers lingered on the zipper and rested against his ribcage.

“no, you thought it rude to ask if you could study my bones and it is, but… there’s a different between studying them and…” Sans started to explain but he wasn’t sure how to phrase it without insinuating something. He was too tired to think clearly and she was still touching him.

“And what, Sans?”

Of course, she would press him for an answer. He had know she would do that and his grin widened a little as he reached down to take her hand from the zipper and instead rest her fingertips against the bone still exposed as the hoodie wasn’t fully zipped up. He had planned to pull back his hand but he let it rest on top of hers because he enjoyed holding her hand too much.

“non-analytical touches. i know monsters fascinate you and i understand it. i felt like that about humans. it’s something new, exciting and it’s something different to what you already understand. it’s endless new learning opportunities,” he said.

“Sometimes, I forget you are a scientist too,” she said and then moved her fingers along the bone in the gentlest trace.

The touch made Sans’ whole body sing and her fingers where on his sternum which was all too close to the place in his chest where his soul hang invisible. She was breaking down all his defenses and she didn’t even have any idea. His soul pulsed and even his exhausted magic reacted causing his ribcage to rise and fall more visibly than normal.

“Do you have lungs?” Doe asked as she took note of the motion.

“no,” he said and chuckled yet again. “but magic isn’t a motionless operation. it moves and expand, pulsing if you will. it makes it look like i breathe.”

“Do you know how long I’ve wanted to ask you that question?” she asked with a shy smile on her face.

“i’m guessing since you met me?” Sans teased her. He hadn’t been blind to how she had been watching him and trying to figure him out.

It had bothered him at first. He thought she was cataloguing things about him and Papyrus to use against them when she returned to the human government but clearly she had no intent of betraying them, as she had just shown her side irrevocably. Now he knew it had probably just been scientific interest that had left her watching him so closely and maybe just a little bit of personal interest, he couldn’t help but hope.

“And here I thought I was being subtle,” Doe commented and shifted on the bed and accidentally knocked into the arm that had been broken.

“Sans, did they break your arm?” she asked, ever observant.

“yeah, but don’t worry. it’s healing fine,” he said and moved it to show her. “they wanted to see if advance healing part was true. it was done just before you came in to talk to me. it’ll be as good as new tomorrow.”

“I’m so sorry,” she said and moved her fingers down the bone but never nearing the break. Her touch was so calming and Sans wasn’t sure how he would move away from her now.

“it’s nothing. i’ve been through far worse and you’re hurt too,” he said and focused back on her hurt cheek. He reached out and snuffed out the tiny flicker of magic that had been restoring over the past few minutes to heal it. It drained him back to zero again but it was worth it.

“Sans,” she protested and pulled his hand away gently. She was always gentle in her touches. “You’re exhausted and it’s a slap, not a life threatening injury.”

“i’ll make him pay,” Sans vowed.

“No, you will not. Karma will come back to get him. And frankly, I think my words did far more damage to his fragile ego that his hand did to my face. I’ll heal. I’m not sure he’ll ever be the same again.”

“that’s my girl. do you want this bed? i can easily move to the one in the other room?”

“You couldn’t even stand on your own feet when we came out of the void,” she reminded him. “You’re staying. Besides, it’s not like we haven’t fallen asleep in a bed together before, is it?”

“that still feels like a dream sometimes. i couldn’t believe you’d come to wake me from a nightmare and then allow yourself to be defenseless in sleep next to the horrible monster that kidnapped you,” Sans confessed.

He still felt worried that things could have taken a much more sinister turn if she hadn’t been able to shake him awake.

“I wasn’t scared of you anymore, Sans. And I just wanted to help. No one should have to go through nightmares alone. You helped with mine as well by staying up with me,” she reminded him.

“caused them too,” Sans couldn’t help but add.

She had never said it outright but he knew it was true. She had been scared of him, terrified even, and she had dreamt of him hurting her. He didn’t know if he would ever let go of the guilt over that.

“Shush, you need to sleep. We both need rest.”

Doe started to get comfortable but then she turned around and watched him intensely.

“You know I didn’t mean any of the things I said in there, right?” she whispered.

“yeah, i know. i could sense it on your soul,” Sans confessed and reached out to rest his finger tip against her chest in the place where he could sense her soul resting underneath.

“Really?” you asked and sounded a little breathless.

“yeah, and frankly you sounded really broken up,” he said and lifted his arm to indicate the break there, “about it.”

“You are the worst,” she said and rolled over to burrow her face in the pillow. It made Sans smile. “Still making puns in situations like this.”

“you love it.”

“Yeah,” she admitted. “I do.”

He fell asleep and the nightmares didn’t come. He rested soundly and he didn’t even register as he and Doe drifted closer together and cuddled up for comfort.

☆☆☆

Sans might have gone a little insane when Doe walked out the door and then proceeded to disappear for hours. He knew he had done something wrong. Calling for the vote had been a stupid idea but he had just been trying to make sense of everything.

Her words had hit him right where it hurt and confirmed his worst fears. He could understand her reasoning but at the same time he didn’t feel like he could give up on the reset.

It had been the plan for years.

And now that it was finally within their grasps, Doe came along and flipped everything on its head. She confused him. He was growing more and more certain that she was the one who put his soul at ease but he didn’t want to admit it to himself, so he ignored it instead.

When things reset, she would forget about him. He would lose her.

He should never have let her kiss him but it had felt like the right thing. He should never have sought comfort in her embrace. He was just setting himself up to be heartbroken when he lost her, one way or another.

No one ever stayed with him.

And then he had taken her into his old home in Showdin and she just made him want to bare his soul to her. He wanted to talk to her, confess his deepest fears and his darkest past. She already knew so much but he was still desperately clutching onto the walls of protection.

The mere idea of showing her his soul terrified him and he knew he had been rude about it when she had asked but he feared that she might be able to see right through him, even if she didn’t understand souls like he did.

He was also a little too worried about seeing his own soul react to her close proximity and whether it would confirm the attachment he was trying to deny.

Yet, as Doe purposely stayed away from him, he found himself regretting that he hadn’t allowed her to see his soul.

When Mettaton’s message came through that Doe had just been sleeping at his and Napstablook’s house, Sans felt instant relief that she was okay. He had known she hadn’t left the town but he has still been worried about her, even if he knew no monster in the city would hurt her.

She hadn’t felt like she could come home, or rather into his home that he had thought she had started to see as her own as well, even if only temporary. He sensed how she approached the house and lingered outside of the front door before turning around.

His soul dropped that she would turn around and walk away but she just went around back to the garden. Sans waited only a handful of moments before he made a shortcut out to her.

He had missed her and he hated how they had left it off.

It would have been better if she had just been furious with him but she had looked disappointed and her expression was burnt into his non-existent retinas.

“you’ll be chilled to the bone just sitting out here,” he commented because he didn’t know what else to say.

“Good one, Sans,” she remarked and she sounded so tired and drained. “Could I borrow you hoodie like before then?”

Sans hadn’t expected her to want anything of his near her but he quickly pulled off the hoodie and placed it carefully on her shoulders.

“I’m sorry if I scared you by leaving like that. I ran into Napstablook and I was so tired that they offered I could crash at theirs,” she explained. “Also I promised Mettaton that you wouldn’t hunt them down for housing me. Not that you would do that anyway, but you know.”

He would under normal circumstances. But if she asked him not to, then he wouldn’t.

“can i sit?” he asked and braced himself for the rejection.

“Always, Sans,” Doe answered and Sans felt even more guilty than before.

He did not deserve to have her in his life. He sat down, a little further away than he wanted to but he felt like he owed her space. Just because she wouldn’t deny his presence did not mean that he could just move close to her like before. She had ever right to be angry with him.

“did you not feel like you could come here? you must know we would never bother you if you wanted some space.”

Doe let out a sigh and then shifted closer until she could lean against him. He had not expected her to want to be near him but he still welcomed the contact.

“I guess I didn’t know how to face you. I figured that you’d be quite mad at me.”

“what?” Sans exclaimed. It made no sense. She was the one who should be mad at him. “i’m not mad at you. why would i be mad?”

“I don’t know how you feel, Sans, because you never talk to me about it,” she said and sounded frustrated. “You just frown and go stone-faced. And what the hell was the purpose of that vote? You knew all the other monsters wanted to reset too.”

“i… i wasn’t really thinking clearly. i wanted to see what the other monsters were thinking,” he said to attempt to explain but the truth was that his brain hadn’t worked properly in that moment. “and you said a lot of things. and the worst part? it was like you shook my foundation. i’ve been so sure of the reset for four years. we’ve been waiting for toriel to wake up, so frisk would be stable enough to attempt it. but then they got kidnapped shortly after. and then it’s finally within reach and you’re standing there, telling me all the things i worried about but purposely ignored.”

It felt cathartic to say the words out loud even as he heard Doe’s breath hitch and she tensed a bit against him.

“and i just want people to be okay,” he finished. He could feel the emotions building inside of him.

He always just wanted people to be okay but they kept getting hurt no matter how hard he tried to protect them. Doe moved her arms back to hold onto him, in an awkward hug but Sans just leaned into the touch anyway.

“I know. Me too. I want the war to be over too but maybe we should try to focus on solving that rather than counting on a reset. What if we get a worse route, Sans? What if Frisk turns bad and doesn’t become good again?” Doe asked, once again voicing his worst fears.

“i know.”

Silence fell over the couple and it was peaceful, even if it felt a bit like the end. The stars shone beautifully.

“you’re not hurt from stepping in with frisk earlier, right?” Sans asked because he was still worried about Doe’s heatlh. “i know you said i didn’t need to see your soul but…”

“You can see it, Sans,” Doe said and interrupted him. “I was just feeling vulnerable already and on edge and I snapped at you. And then my mind started saying that none of this – none of what has passed between the two of us – matters at all because it’ll all be erased anyway. But I guess, I like to forget that you’ll remember.”

He felt a little stunted at her words. She had thought about what the reset would to do the two of them as well. It made Sans feel extremely sad because he did not want her to worry about that. But if she was thinking about this stuff, could it possibly mean that she felt as deeply for him as he probably felt for her? No, it wasn’t healthy to think like that, for either of them.

“i will,” Sans confirmed and then switched to the slightly lighter of the topics Doe brought up. “so you’d be okay with me calling it out?”

Sans called out Doe’s soul and he watched with a critical eye first, moving his hand close to inspect how the shatter lines glowed in defense but he was mostly happy with what he saw. The red color of determination was a little duller than last time but the blue and green colors were still mixing and shimmering brightly.

Doe’s soul was beautiful and Sans was honored he had been allowed a final look of it before everything reset.

“it looks normal…” he told her. “a little dull in the determination in your shatter lines but they still reach when someone nears them.”

Sans watched her soul tenderly and he tried to remember the feel of her presence so that he might be able to pick it out of a crowd. If he knew it well enough, it might be easier to find her in another timeline. Sans knew he would have to try, even if she wouldn’t remember him.

“Did you mean the thing you said about me saving us in the void?” Doe asked.

“it’s the only thing that makes sense,” he said and nodded. “i wasn’t sure how we got out. i could never figure it out until i saw you do the same thing to frisk. you’re the one who gave them strength to properly heal and reconnect with their magic.”

“That doesn’t make me magic, right?” Doe asked curiously. Always so curious.

Sans let out a chuckle as he watched the light in her eyes. “no. no magic involved. just human stuff. but one should never underestimate the stuff you guys are made of. you’re clever and strong in ways monsters aren’t. your sheer willpower is admirable. you can do almost anything, including giving each other the will to continue.”

He was still so impressed that she had somehow managed to force him to hold onto reality in the void for long enough to get them out of there. And what she had done to Frisk was nothing short of astonishing. She might not have magic but she was magical for sure. Sans took a last glance at her soul, memorizing it once more, before he returned it to her home.

“did you mean what you said about how me seeing your soul made you trust me more?” he asked.

He had not been able to forget about that. And after he thought that he had pushed her away, he had started to reconsider his original answer to her request.

“Things changed at that point, definitely,” she confirmed. “I didn’t know just how vulnerable I made myself when I asked you to show me my soul. Looking back, I was rather foolish but you were so gentle. You didn’t take advantage of the dumb human that put herself on a platter for you to exploit while you had every reason to hate me.”

“i never hated you,” Sans said sincerely. “in the beginning i just wanted you to talk and i saw you as more of a means to an end than a person. but when you spared me, after you had the chance to dust me, i was reminded that you were a complex person with beliefs and feelings. after that, i wanted you to trust us, to trust me and to understand where we were coming from but it was never hatred.”

He had wanted nothing more than to gain her trust and now that he knew he had it, he wasn’t sure what to do. She had said that she respected the decision, partly his decision, to reset things. She trusted the monsters that she had feared when she first came here.

“I think I hated you a bit in the beginning,” she confessed and Sans wasn’t surprised, even if it stung a little. “But only because I didn’t know better.”

“i didn’t exactly make it easy for you by kidnapping you.”

She had forgiven him for that. He wasn’t sure if he deserved it. He wasn’t sure if he deserved Doe at all. But he knew he could give her one thing, even if it scared him. He could grant her the request he had originally turned down.

“do you remember what you asked me about in the underground?” he asked in a low voice, a bit scared to speak too loudly even in the quiet garden under the gentle moonlight.

“About a thousand questions, I believe. You’ll have to be more specific, bone boy,” she said teasingly and Sans’ grin widened.

“the only one i didn’t properly answer. about you seeing my soul,” he clarified.

Doe had been looking up at the stars but now she turned and only paid attention to him.

“Yeah, but it’s fine, Sans. I didn’t know that monster souls couldn’t be outside of the bodies, unless for mating. Don’t worry about it.”

“well, everything i said was true but there is a way you can see my specific soul without that. perks of stemming from the void of bones i suppose.”

He nudged her away from where she was leaning on him and pulled off his T-shirt to expose his ribcage. He couldn’t feel the cold but he still felt very vulnerable. Doe’s eyes scanned over his bones and she looked so intrigued but she had a hint of worry in her voice when she spoke.

“Are you sure, Sans? I asked because I was curious but with everything else going on around us maybe it’s best you’re as little attached to me as possible.”

Sans shook his head. “you’re clever but wrong. i want to recall as many good memories as possible, even if we lose what we have created here. you were right before. all the things still happened, even if we go back to overdo it. they happened and they are happening and you have to live in the moment.”

He meant what he was saying. It would be torture to lose her but he would still like to hold onto all the happy memories and part of him wanted to even out the vulnerability. He had never shown anybody his soul, expect Papyrus years ago when he had been asking curious questions, and right now it felt very intimate.

Sans closed his eye sockets and concentrated on making his soul visible within his ribcage. He kept pushing and hopefully making it appear but he was still a little unsure if it had worked and he didn’t dare to look down.

“can you see it?” he asked after he opened his eyes and he took note of how his one blue glowing eye didn’t seem to surprise or frighten Doe at all, even up this close.

She smiled and nodded before reaching out to take his hand. She intertwined their fingers and Sans let the touch ground him.

“It’s beautiful, Sans.”

“it’s just a plain white soul,” he said.

Doe frowned at him before moving closer until her face was so close to his breastbone. Sans tensed and wondered if he should be telling her not to touch it but she seemed to figure that out on her own as she intertwined her other hand with his to show that she wasn’t going to reach out and touch it.

“You had quite the tough life too, huh?” she asked after watching his soul intensely. She must have picked up on some scarring. Sans couldn’t really see his own soul but he knew it must be there. Doe remained close to him as she moved her face up and he could feel her breath on his teeth.

He let the magic fizzle out and the light from his soul and his eye made everything seem significantly darker. But with Doe sitting in front of him, he didn’t feel unsettled at all.

“i’m surprised that old thing even held up. between all the void training as a babybones and the horror when frisk got curious, it should probably have given out a long time ago,” Sans commented.

“I’m very glad it didn’t,” Doe said and pressed a kiss to his teeth.

Sans wasn’t sure why Doe had started to kiss him but he loved it so very much. He had never thought she would allow her face to be this close to his teeth, which would be quite sharp but he made sure to move so that he could never hurt her.

His teeth didn’t allow him to reciprocate very well, so he conjured his tongue into existence to better kiss her back. It was pure bliss, gentle and familiar, even if they had not shared that many kisses yet.

Sans would miss this so much and he could already feel the ache in his soul that he would be losing Doe. He didn’t want to acknowledge that she might be the only person who would make his soul feel at ease. He couldn’t let himself think like that. It would only make the wound cut deeper.

Kissing turned into just grazing up at the stars. Sans felt a peace with the universe for a moment. Lying here under the nights’ sky with Doe, it was difficult to remember why it was so important to reset.

This timeline had precious moments like this but Sans forced himself to remember all the horrors that had passed and would continue to pass because of the war.

“Frisk is going to reset tomorrow,” Doe said as she looked up at the stars.

“i think they’re determined to, yeah. honestly, i’m not a hundred percent sure if it’s the right thing anymore but we have worked too hard on it to just turn back. i’m sorry,” he said.

“Sans, I understand. It was always going to turn out this way, wasn’t it? I guess I’m just glad you’ll remember me in a hopefully more positive light now that we’ve talked things out,” she said and snuggled closer to him.

“of course, i will, doe,” he promised.

He would never be able to forget her. She was very special to him.

“And if we meet again, when I don’t know you? Give me a chance to come around but don’t let your guard down before you’re sure I’m okay. Like Frisk and many other humans, I have the capability to be really nasty as well. I might have become an entirely different person if you manage to come across me again,” she warned him.

Sans knew she was right but it was just so difficult to picture her as anything other than the wonderful human being she was right now. He wanted to trust that she would remain a human of kindness and integrity. But she was right about the comparison to Frisk. Sans would never have thought that his friend would be capable of what had passed in the Underground but he has seen it with his own two eye sockets.

“i’ll keep an eye socket out for you. and for the record, i think you’d deserve a second chance, just like frisk.”

Doe nodded and smiled, which then quickly morphed into a yawn.

“bed?” he asked and half expected her to refuse.

“Bed,” she replied with conviction in her voice.

He took her hand in his before making a shortcut to his room, which left them falling right onto the bed. This would be his final night with her and it left a sharp ache in his chest as he held her in his arms.

But it was out of their hands. Frisk was the one who had to reset. It was their choice and they had made the decision. Sans didn’t interfere with people’s decisions. He believed in the freedom of choice, perhaps because it had been taken away from him so many times.

He was fairly sure that he would have chosen whatever would let him keep Doe, if he was the one who had the choice, even if he knew his decision-making was impacted by his emotional state. He knew a reset might be better for the world, so he wouldn’t dwell on it anymore. He stayed away the whole night, just feeling Doe breathe against him and he memorized the feel of her and her soul.

He drank up every last moment with her and he promised himself to look for her in the alternate timeline.

☆☆☆

She loved him. He still could not get over that fact. She put his soul _at ease_ and she _loved_ him. She would not forget him. The reset plan was called off.

He felt like she might be ripped away from his arms as she slowly fell asleep in his arms. The insecurities were still there and Sans wondered if he would ever be able to completely beat away those pesky little thoughts that told him that he wouldn’t be loved. The void had done a number on him and he wore so many scars from his early days.

But she had known about his worries. He hadn’t said them but she had known. She had paused and reassured him. She had told him _why_ she loved him, so that it made it more possible for him to believe her. He wasn’t sure he was everything she thought he was but he was willing to strive to become it.

It almost hurt to leave her sleeping on the sofa and he had stood in the doorway for far longer than was acceptable just to look at her. He was mesmerized. She was such an interesting human and originally he had thought he would never figure out about her but he had been wrong. She had dropped her walls for him and now he was doing his best to reciprocate.

When he went down to see the scene Mettaton had accidentally recorded, Sans was transported right back to the moment that she finally snapped and expressed her viewpoint. It was almost unsettling to watch it back but he admired her fierce words even more the second time around. He wasn’t sure if he would ever be able to get her words out of his skull. And then she snuck into the back of the room and it had taken all of his self-control not to turn around and face her when she walked in.

After hearing her worries, all the monsters had looked like Sans had felt in the moment. But it was the perfect motivation for the massive task that was ahead of them the following day.

The mission to distract the POCAM guards outside of New New Home, while the others drove out, worked like a charm. It was only two against dozens but both Undyne and himself like those odds and never once did they have to resort to critical violence. Sans was just growing more and more impatient and he wanted to be done, so he could get back to the main event. Undyne might have teased him for his restlessness about being away from Doe about it but one side comment about her and Alphys and she started stuttering and threatening to shut him up.

With all the POCAM guards taken down, he quickly grabbed ahold of Undyne’s arm and made them a shortcut to the others. Doe was talking to the old POCAM doctor, the one who had been kind of nice to him when he was locked up and he couldn’t help but grin when he heard her speak.

“How is your skeleton?” the POCAM doctor asked.

Instead of answering her, Doe just reached over and pulled him into a tight hug, which he had absolutely no objections to. In fact, he could feel hope welling up inside of his ribcage that this type of simple but meaningful affections could become common.

“Everything went okay?” she asked and searched his face.

“no dead,” Sans said, a hint of insecurity that she still didn’t trust him since she was asking.

However, she frowned deeply and he felt completely unfounded in his worries.

“And _you_ two are okay?” she asked.

“it wasn’t a problem, but we should get started before the people notice that there’s a whole operating station out of commission,” Sans replied.

Doe was set to introduce the whole event and Sans could feel the anxious waves coming off her but he also knew that she was perfectly capable, even if she got nervous. Mettaton was set to start the cameras as soon as she started speaking. No one had cleared it with Doe first but they didn’t want to cause more nerves that necessary.

“Thank you to all of you for coming here today. You stand here in the crowd today because you want to stop the war between monsters and humans. You stand her today because you believe that we can make a peace agreement and the end goal shouldn’t be elimination of each other. You have all been taught about monsters and you know that they’re nothing like what our government tells us. They’re not vicious creatures, bloodthirsty killers or power-hungry. And most importantly, they want peace, as do all of you here. The monsters only ever wished to live in harmony. And we’ve been lied to about the events that started the war. But you should not listen to me. You should listen to Frisk, the former monster ambassador, who is now considered the most wanted monster sympathizer. They were just a little kid when they met all of these supposedly vicious creatures and yet they now see them as family. Please welcome Frisk and their translator Hannah to the stage.”

Sans clapped his hands slowly and deliberately as the crowd erupted in applause. Sans would never tire of having her speak on their behalf with such passion and understanding. Initially, he wasn’t sure if she would even allow herself to hear out the monsters and now she was an advocate for their cause. It had truly come full circle.

“He turned on the camera early, didn’t he?” she asked.

“HOW COULD HE NOT? WE KNOW THAT YOU HAVE A LOT OF THINGS TO SAY AND FRISK SAID WE NEEDED SOME OF YOUR SENTIMENT. BUT YOU DIDN’T WANT TO SPEAK…”

“So we had to make you just do the introduction. And like predicted, you had more to say,” Undyne said and interrupted Papyrus.

“Were you in on this?” she asked him and he felt a wave of guilt wash over him. He should probably have told her but thankfully, it seemed like she moved on rather quickly. “Whatever, I want to hear what Frisk is going to say.”

Frisk’s speech was going amazingly and Sans had to keep a tight hold of his emotions because when the teenager’s hands shook and they had to take a moment to compose themselves, Sans just wanted to go up there and put a reassuring hand on their shoulder. Asgore was gone for good. The scars and traumas lingered in the survivors. Nothing would be reset and they would all have to live with the cards that this surface life had given them. Sans listened intensely while watching the reaction from the crowd.

He felt the vibrations in the air before he heard the loud explosion and instantly he surveyed the area and saw the two POCAM tankers and possibly hundreds of soldiers on foot. This was not good. They needed to get out of here immediately.

“we need to get you all out of here,” Sans said and made a move to grab his little brother’s arm because from now on he would always be the first person he got out from a dangerous situation. Frustratingly, Papyrus dodged his hold and Sans had half a mind to force him to stay in place with his magic, even he had once promised Papyrus never to do that again.

“YOU WILL NOT MOVE ME, SANS!” Papyrus said, in a much too calm tone.

Sans needed him out of here pronto and then he would come back from Doe, Frisk and the others so now really wasn’t the time to argue.

“pap, now isn’t…”

“Humans!” one of the humans on top of the tanker shouted. Sans thought that might be Doe’s old boss. “Vacate the premise immediately or you will be in the line of fire.”

Some of the audience started to run away. Doe put in her earpiece and undoubtedly heard Alphys out on the situation. Sans didn’t know what to do. He just wanted all of them away from harm but he could also sense the determination in the air.

It was coming off both Frisk and Doe and Sans knew both of them too well to know that he would be able to change their mind. Even Papyrus seemed determined to stay and fight rather than run away.

Sans tried to center and concentrate his magic because he was willing to freeze every hostile human in the town square but he would need some time to gather up the magic and concentration to do so. He would have to be ready to protect them.

“What is the plan?” the POCAM doctor asked.

“I said: DISPERSE IMMEDIATELY or face the consequences,” the professor guy shouted again. Sans wondered if one well-aimed bone hitting his Adam’s apple would be a bad idea. Probably.

Still, he itched to conjure it up and send it flying. If that guy was really Doe’s old boss then he definitely had it coming.

“doe, what are you doing?” Sans asked because he knew with the way that Frisk was looking at her that this would come down to her call.

“Are we taking them on?” Undyne questioned and looked like she was readying herself for a fight.

“No,” Doe said in a serious voice.

The human translator handed Doe the microphone and she looked a bit unsure. Frisk started signing and Sans was just about to jump in and translate but Mont beat him to it.

“They’re saying that you talk to them. You believe in them. Make them believe in you.”

“doe, they’ll shoot you too,” Sans warned as he saw her entire body tense and if she had any kind of magical abilities he had no doubt that the air would be thick with the tension. She looked about ready to snap the microphone in half with how tightly she was holding it.

“YOU CAN PROTECT HER, BROTHER,” Papyrus said and the sincerity in his voice almost knocked Sans over.

Papyrus trusted in his abilities that much? Sans wasn’t so sure of it himself but it did help immensely to have his brother’s faith. Doe looked a little like a doe caught in the headlights, and Sans only managed to catch the pun at the last minute because now wasn’t the time for jokes. He would tell her the pun later. When they were out of here safely. They had to get out of her safely.

“We want peace,” she finally said. “We are not here to fight. This is a peaceful protest to let people know that the monsters want peace. They never wanted this war.”

Another man popped up of the other tanker and Sans could immediately tell this was the boss of the whole situation. It did not make him feel one bit better.

“This is Director Jameson of Protection Of Civilians Against Monsters. Do you surrender?”

Surrender?

Was this human insane? If the monsters “surrendered” who know what might happen to them? Nothing good, Sans could say with certainty after his own unwanted stay at a POCAM facility.

“We do not surrender. We want a peace treaty,” Doe said and Sans relaxed a little. He had worried for a moment if she would consider surrender like the non-violent solution to this invasion and interruption.

“That’s not how it works, little lady.”

Sans was on the edge to send a bone flying that would knock this guy into next week for speaking to Doe in that tone. Evidently, she thought the same because he could see how she tensed and glared in his direction.

“Surrender or we fire.”

These humans were insane if they thought this would work. Sans felt his magic travel through his entire skeleton body and he gathered up his energy, ready to use it sooner rather than later.

“they’re in for a bad time if they try just the slightest thing,” he warned and he tried to call his magic to the surface now but something wasn’t right.

He felt his magic thrum through his bones but he couldn’t actually release it. Any of it. No, it couldn’t be true. Another magic blocking device? This was not happening. Sans was not losing or getting his family hurt in another attack. It was just not happening.

But he knew that without his magic, he was not a great challenge.

“Undyne,” Doe asked in a hushed voice. “Can you conjure up a spear?”

Sans already knew that Undyne would be unable to do so but he was surprised how quickly Doe had picked up on the magic blocker. Had she sensed in him that he was trying to use magic and failing? Was she really so attuned to him?

“I’m going to freaking kill-” Undyne started screaming until Papyrus clamped a massive hand over her mouth to cut her off.

This was falling apart around them. Fast.

Sans sensed the determination in the air flicker and he looked directly at Frisk, who seemed genuinely scared now.

“ALPHYS IS SAYING THAT WE SHOULD GET OUT OF HERE,” Papyrus said while still holding onto a struggling Undyne.

Sans agreed but without magic it wasn’t very easy. It wasn’t like the human soldiers would just let them walk off like it was nothing. They had them cornered and without magic, they could not win this battle.

“What is it going to be? Peaceful surrender or eating lead?”

“Will you trust me?” Doe asked as she turned to face the whole group.

Sans had no clue what she was planning but he still nodded instantly. He did trust her. He trusted her with his very soul.

“What is stopping the very powerful monsters at my side from killing you all? According to you that’s all what monsters do,” Doe said and Sans noticed how she took note of the still rolling cameras.

What was she playing at?

“Oh, do try.”

Sans let out a growl deep from his non-existent stomach. He wanted to beat that guy’s face in with his knuckles.

“Have you got another device to eliminate the use of magic, Professor Jeffords? Is that why you are brave enough to face off against the monsters?” Doe asked.

“You have a minute,” the other tanker guy stated. “One minute before I give the order to blow you all to pieces. Their monster magic cannot save you. Surrender or die.”

Doe looked back at him and he felt like she was seeing right into his soul again.

“Sans,” she said in an insistent but low voice. “When I tell you, you take all of their guns away from them and keep them in place. Undyne and Pap, you throw bones and spears at those tankers and make them unable to shoot or drive.”

“I think you’re forgetting about the no magic thing,” Undyne protested.

“No, I’m not,” Doe said.

Sans braced himself at they were told their minute was up. However, that moment something changed and all the charged up magic threatened to burst right out of his bones when it was suddenly untrapped.

He managed to direct it to grab all the guns and then hold the soldiers in place. It was over a hundred souls and Sans felt the fatigue hit him as soon as he stretched his magic that thin but he was prepared for it.

He gridded his teeth and bore it. Doe had a plan with all of this clearly and he could hold up his part of it. He would have to because if he let go, they would have hundreds of pissed off humans going straight for them. Sans had never tested the limits of his magic since Gaster used to do it to him, but he clamped down on that unwanted memory.

“You said that they couldn’t use magic!”

“I made a new device! It couldn’t be possible!”

“We reverse engineered your design of the last one. Monsters and humans working together can accomplish wonderful things as you will hopefully see,” Doe said into the microphone.

The director guy was yelling something but Sans could hardly make it out with the pounding inside his skull.

“We are not killing you,” Doe said and her voice reached him like coming home. “Like I said, like Frisk said on the live stream that people are still watching, monsters want peace. They don’t want war and they could tell you all of this themselves if you had just been willing to listen. However, you didn’t care to hear it from them, so as their allies we step up to the plate to defend them when they cannot defend themselves. To any and all watching this, when you think about monsters, think of this. Think of the monsters standing up against the forces that want them to surrender or die. Watch how the monsters could kill every human here but how they did not. They are serious about peace. The meeting that started the war was an attack on them, an attempt to kill the monster counsel and their leaders. It wasn’t the other way around. And to any heads of state, the monster counsel wants nothing more than to broker a peace deal. Reach out to them and listen when they speak. We might have classified them as monsters but they are not monsters like the media and military painted them out to be.”

Sans was losing his grip on the magic too quickly and while he appreciated Doe’s speech, she needed to wrap it up.

“doe,” he tried to say but it only came out as a whisper but it did catch her attention. “i can’t hold everyone for that much longer.”

Sans felt his vision go blurry as the human translator said something again, which must have meant that Frisk was speaking now but Sans couldn’t pay attention. He heard shuffling sounds and feared that he had somehow lost hold of some of the soldiers but when he looked out, it was only their allies picking up the discarded weapons.

Then he heard all the bullets fall.

It was a beautiful sound, even if he felt like using his magic on such a large crowd was slightly tearing him apart.

“Sans, you’re not looking too hot, my friend,” the stupid robot monster commented and Sans let out a deep growl and he would have flipped off the monster too if not for how his hands were starting to shake from the overextension.

Papyrus said something about a van and soon enough Doe’s hands was guiding him into it. He checked that everyone was inside when Papyrus asked if they were ready.

Sans was fucking ready to get far enough away from her to drop his hold on the soldiers.

“just drive,” Sans muttered and forced his arm to stay extended, even as it wanted to fold in on itself and all of his bones were starting to feel a little like jelly.

He held on for as long as he could but when they crossed the town’s border, his hand dropped without his permission and he felt like he was completely empty for magic. He had wanted to hold on for longer than that but clearly he had no choice in the matter.

He felt both utterly miserable and extremely happy. They had made it out of there. No one had gotten shot at. He could take severe magical exhaustion if it was the price of everyone making it out of that situation without a scratch.

Sans let himself drop into Doe’s waiting arms and she caught and held onto him diligently. His exhausted soul reveled in the contact but he still couldn’t quite shake the feeling that this wasn’t really over. But then again, doing it this way would never just be one quick fix like a reset. It would be a lot more complicated.

“they’re going to come after us,” he said.

“Their tanks are destroyed, their weapons emptied and they just had their entire belief system challenged. They saw monsters being merciful. They saw humans and monster communicating as equals,” Doe reminded him and reached down to trace her fingers over his cheek. “It matters, Sans. And the whole world watched it happen.”

She was so beautiful and hopeful. She trusted in her fellow humans. She wanted to believe that humanity was good as a whole. Sans wanted to believe that too, even if he had seen too much of the ugly side in his life. But maybe they could change.

People like Frisk and Doe existed and maybe more would become like them. It was a nice thought.

And Sans wanted it so desperately. The surface had been built up to be this magical place and he had been severely disappointed when he had first gotten here. It was nothing like he had imagined, which was mostly a bad thing but it did also throw in a nice surprise for him now and again.

Like meeting Doe.

She believed so much that things could be solved. What was more, she was determined for it to be resolved and Sans knew better than most how powerful that truly was.

“so we think we can truly get a no blood spilled route?” he asked and he couldn’t help but smile when he looked up at her face from where he was almost lying in her lap.

“You bet your bony ass that we can,” she said with a smile.

Sans let his eye sockets fall closed and he let himself enjoy this moment of triumph. Maybe Doe was right that it mattered that a lot of humans had finally seen monsters being merciful. It might be the first wave and push to change things.

He wanted it to be true. For her, for himself and for his family and friends.

“I don’t know that that means, Frisk,” Doe said after glancing over at Frisk, who must be signing. Sans forced his eye sockets open and looked over to Frisk who did two very important signs.

Sans felt as if he might have a lump in his throat, even if that wasn’t possible. Frisk was right, of course. Sans had thought it himself before when they had only just met. If anything that described Doe perfectly.

“true pacifist,” Sans translated and he let the word hang in the air for a moment.

Sans remembered the different timeline Frisks and how the true pacifist was the only one who had made it to the surface. After everything, the pacifist had prevailed. Maybe they would again.

“they’re saying you’re a true pacifist. you’re someone who dodges attacks, never attacks yourself and talk to people until they stop fighting you,” Sans expanded when Doe looked a little confused.

“Thank you, Frisk. That sounds like a good thing,” Doe said and Sans could hear the emotion in her voice. She was touched.

Sans hummed in agreement and closed his eye socket once again. He was so tired and he just wanted to rest. He snuggled closer to Doe who immediately placed her hands back on him. It felt comfortable. It felt warm. It felt hopeful.

For the first time in a long time Sans felt like he might actually have a future that wasn’t just about fulfilling a mission.

“oh, it is. it’s a very good thing,” he said sleepily.

It was the best thing really, especially for someone like him who had been surrounded by violence in too much of his life. He was lucky to have found someone who stood by her principles uncompromisingly and above all met people with kindness first.

She was something very special and he had realized that when he first met her and called her interesting because he could not get a clear read on her soul. She had proved increasingly more interesting as he had gotten to know her.

And now she would help them get other humans to see what monsters truly were like. Sans didn’t think he deserved nice things and he tried not allowing himself to get too attached. But as he felt the van rock back and forth, he thought that he was a very lucky monster indeed.

Because despite everything that he had been through, he still had people that cared about him and people that he cared for in return. It made all his scars seem a little more faded. Life on the surface wasn’t what he had thought it would be but it definitely had its moments.

And meeting Doe had without a doubt been one of the best ones.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wingding translation: USELESS. BROKEN. A COWARD
> 
> And with that I finish off my YCDTFOOW universe. I am going to miss this so much, especially after having written in Sans' perspective for the past couple of weeks to make this bonus content. I just love the backstory I made for him so damn much and I might come back and write more about it at some point. I hope you got to see a lot of the elements you hopefully liked in the main story. Did any of the sentiments from Sans' surprise you? Do you feel like you better understand him now that you know the reasoning behind some of the things he says and does? It has been a pleasure to write him honestly and I hope I did him justice. 
> 
> Thank you to everyone who has read this far and I hope you enjoyed my take on the Undertale characters and our reader character. As always, comments are highly appreciated. If you want to find more of my writing or keep up with me, I'm [@secretlywritingstories](http://secretlywritingstories.tumblr.com) on tumblr.


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